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SONGS 



A Collection of 

Church, Home, Nature, 

Soul and Miscellaneous Songs 



BY 

DAVID C. NIMMO 



'Press of Frank H. West 
'Detroit, JXCich. 






ARYofCON 
Two Oopies Recei 

MAR 20 1908 




LASS 0~ XXc. M 



Copyright, 1908, by David C. Nimmo 



a • 
• • • 



Contents 



CHURCH SONGS. 

Crown Him. No. 1 7 

A Holy Heart 8 

Hail, Sabbath Morn ! 9 

Arise, Oh Church ! No. 1 10 

Make Me, Oh Jesus ! 12 

Missionary. No. 1 13 

Fellowship 14 

The Bread of Life. No 1 15 

The Mercy Seat. No. 1 16 

Glorify Thy Name ! 17 

God's Presence . .. 18 

Conviction 20 

Oh for a Faith ! 21 

Oh Spirit Help 22 

The Banquet 23 

Thanksgiving Hymn. No. 1 24 

Oh Love of God Come In 26 

The Mercy Seat. No. 2 27 

Arise, Oh Church 28 

Life, Love and Light 29 

The Bread of Life. No. 2 30 

Soul Refiner 31 

Come, Spirit, Come ! 32 

Crown Him. No. 2 , 33 

NATURE SONGS. 

The Azure Dome 35 

The Rose 43 

The Northern Lights 46 

A Saucer of Pansies 51 



Nature Songs — Continued 

Hail Spring-time 53 

Meteors and Stars 54 

The Robin 56 

The Song of the Green Tree 60 

Summer 64 

Night 70 

The Bride of the Sun 93 

HOME SONGS. 

A Mother's Dream-Song 99 

Children's Bed-Song 101 

Influence of Baby 103 

Fat Medicine 104 

The Rejected' s Faith 106 

A Lover's Song 107 

A Woman's Way 108 

The Anniversary 109 

The New Advice 112 

Woman 112 

The Best Baby 113 

The Wish 115 

The Baby Show 121 

Young Motherhood 125 

Because It's You, My Dear 129 

Boyhood's Home 132 

The Whistling Girl 133 

The Wife's Return 135 

SOUL SONGS. 

How Swift ? 139 

Driven 139 

Our Life 140 

An Appeal 140 

Peter Taught 147 

A Boy Again 149 

"Never Suffered" 150 

Knowledge 153 

Monopoly Christians 154 

The Years 161 



Soul Songs — Continued 

A Conflict 162 

Weary 170 

The Last Journey 170 

Progress 171 

Deception 172 

Fit to Live , 176 

Sight 180 

Donald's Answer 180 

Hell Fire 181 

Damn the Police 186 

The Departed 191 

Need, Greed and Meed 194 

A World Sigh 195 

Our Day 213 

Youth and Age 213 

Lost and Found 214 

Song and Sigh 215 

MISCELLANEOUS SONGS. 

The Poet's Advice 217 

The Dream 224 

Time's Immortal 228 

God of the United States 229 

To the Musician 246 

Song of the Art Critic 248 

A Poet's Lament 250 

A National Song 253 

The Fifth String 255 

The American Eagle 258 



Church songs 



CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS. 
No. 1 

Crown him with many crowns! 

Prophet and priest and king, 
Immortals, splendors and renowns 

Around his throne now sing! 
Crown him with many crowns ! 

Their oceanic voice 
Is swelling, and all music drowns 

To blend and co-rejoice. 

He is the Lord of love! 

Divine effulgent throne, 
Father and seraphs ranked above 

For us he did disown. 
Down unseen golden stair, 

By strange incarnate birth, 
His Godhead veiled yet shining fair 

He lived and loved on earth. 

Yonder on Calvary ! 

Behold yon crimson cross ! 
Pierced brow, scarred palms, cleft heart Oh see ! 

And heaven's smile his loss. 
Black storms around him break, 

Listen with bated breath ! 
"My God ! My God ! Why me forsake I" 

Oh Life! Oh Love! Oh Death! 



CHURCH SONGS 

What are the world's renowns? 

His only dare we sing; 
His exploits which the morning gowns 

Dethrones each highest king. 
What angel in the height 

Thought in his boldest dream 
Such love descend to such a night 

Such sinners to redeem ! 

Crown him with many crowns ! 

The brow once crowned with thorn, 
Let honor that each rival drowns 

Forever more adorn. 
Crown him with many crowns ! 

Oh all that e'er shall be, 
Place on his brow your bright renowns 

To all eternity ! 



A HOLY HEART. 



Oh holy, holy heart of love ! 

Thy gifts of grace I see; 
Promise in hand and face above 

I plead the best from Thee. 

A heart as holy as Thy heart; 

Thy being's central flame; 
The purest, best of all Thee art 

Oh place within my frame ! 

Another fire, white and intense, 
An instant death to sin; 

A flaming and thrice glowing sense 
From Thy heart mine would win. 



CHURCH SONGS 

A crystal shining purity 

And bright as Thy own face ; 

A mirror where Thy soul can see 
Thy being's brightest grace. 

Oh Holiness and Love divine ! 

This gift my spirit bless; 
To me Thou givest nought, I pine, 

If not Thy holiness. 



HAIL SABBATH MORN! 

Hail Sabbath morn, hail ! 

Hail day of delight ! 
The week's cloudy veil 

Has passed from our sight. 
We hail thy soft splendor 

That on us now plays, 
Come gladly and tender 

Our tribute of praise. 

To thee we return 

Oh soul of the week ! 
Our hearts for thee yearn, 

Thy presence we seek. 
Thy presence emboldens 

And promises rest, 
From love that unfoldens 

A warm welcome breast. 

We come sore oppressed, 

Oh pour in thy balm ! 
Now breath in each breast 

Thy silence and calm. 
The spirits that sicken 

With toil, sin and strife, 
Thy presence can quicken 

With hope, joy and life. 



10 CHURCH SONGS 

Our sorrows we lose 

In songs of thy praise; 
Our joys not abuse 

While walking thy ways. 
Our six-gathered burden 

We leave at thy feet, 
And newly engirden 

Life's duty can meet. 

Oh soul the most pure, 
Come in ! Oh come in ! 

Thou only canst cure. 
Our hearts of their sin. 

Enrobe in thy fashion ! 
Breathe spirit divine ! 

Oh bind us with passion 
To all that is thine ! 

Thou day of all days, 

The weeks for thee yearn; 
On life's weary ways 

Oh often return ! 
Thou heaven's best token 

Dawn often ! Oh dawn ! 
When life's chain is broken. 

Be never withdrawn. 



ARISE OH CHURCH! 
No. 1. 

Arise Oh Church ! Arise ! 

Rise as in ancient days ! 
Canst thou look back and not more prize 

Thy place of power and praise? 
Oh heart and hope of fire ! 

Oh spirit from the skies ! 
Amid this fierce and final strife 

Arise again ! Oh rise ! 



CHURCH SONGS W 

Rise with the ancient faith, 

Scorning all fear and doubt; 
Mid life and death and lightning scathe 

Can "Victory!" louder shout; 
Upon the promise stands 

Like mountains in repose; 
Far sweeping hell's dark legion bands 

And each time stronger grows. 

Rise with the ancient love, 

The love from God's own heart; 
That knows no self, like him above 

All for the worst will part; 
Pure, burning, rich and white, 

Contagious, fierce and strong, 
In holiness finds her delight 

While singing Calvary's song. 

Rise with the ancient truth 

Of sin and holiness; 
On manhood, age and thoughtless youth 

They fall with vast impress; 
Judgment, eternity, 

Upon thy lips of fire 
Shall still the mind, the heart set free, 

And feed with high desire. 



Rise with the ancient prayer, 

The prayer that does prevail; 
Where faith and love and truth can dare 

The "Victory !" far to hail. 
Sin's brazen skies shall rain; 

The Esau heart be tame; 
And spirits stablished without stain, 

Shall prayer and power proclaim. 



L2 CHURCH SONGS 

Rise with the ancient Christ 

Who died and ever lives; 
Who life and love with gifts unpriced 

To all with freedom gives; 
With him throned in thy heart 

Thy life can never fail; 
Thy morn shall break, thy night depart, 

All hail. Oh Church ! All hail ! 



MAKE ME OH JESUS! 

Make me, Oh Jesus on my race 
To meet with Thee above, 

Unlike I am, full of Thy grace, 
A spirit of Thy love. 

A spirit broken and contrite, 
Tender, and kind and meek; 

Patient, forgiving and bedight 
With passions for the weak : 

Peaceful and trusting, sensitive, 
Grateful and warm with fire ; 

A hope, a joy, a light to live, 
And toward Thee more aspire: 

Prayerful and singing night and day, 
Beholding Thy bright face; 

Heeding Thy word, quick to obey, 
Praising Thy matchless grace: 

A faithful witness unto Thee, 
A thought, a word, a deed; 

A sorrow on the sin I see, 
A balm upon its need: 

A life to image only Thine, 
Deep, wide, intense and high, 

That grows in all things more divine 
While rising toward Thy sky. 



CHURCH SONGS 13 

MISSIONARY. 
No. 1. 

On palmy isles of ocean, 

'Mong Afric's teeming host, 
Mid Asia's dark devotion, 

On mountain, plain and coast, 
Unfurl the gospel banner ! 

Her silken-crimson breast 
Glad heaven will see and fan her 

North, east and south and west. 

Brighter than summer morning, 

Shot through with sunny beams, 
The blue of heaven adorning, 

Her crimson light far streams. 
Green hope and azure gladness, 

Young strength and truth divine, 
Soft rainbow balms for sadness 

From her rich folds out shine. 

God's grace and life eternal, 

Spring joys and summer calm, 
Vast promise, gifts supernal, 

Bright hope, triumphant psalm; 
Oh where stream out this story 

If not on heathen coasts? 
Where? Where unfurl her glory 

If not mid heathen hosts ? 

Where multitudes are dying 

'Neath black and starless sky, 
Where death for hope is sighing 

Oh lift his banner high ! 
Her crimson waves kissed golden 

Fling out! Oh hasten fling! 
Her sight lost hearts embolden 

To trust and love the king. 



CHURCH SONGS 

Go ! Go unfurl the banner ! 

Her folds of crimson light, 
With heaven's joys to fan her 

Will fill the darkest night. 
She poureth undreamed graces 

Upon the heart and eyes, 
They come to Christ's embraces, 

And sing on toward the skies. 



FELLOWSHIP. 



Saviour who for me died 
That self and all my pride 

Might die with Thee, 
Draw my resisting heart 
To share in death its part, 
And join Thee as Thou art 

On Calvary. 

Lead through Gethsemane, 
Up darker Calvary 

Lead. Jesus, lead ! 
Though mortal flesh retreat, 
Crimson each step my feet, 
Faint I in noonday heat, 

My cries ne'er heed. 

My soul with Thine unite ; 
Death is sin's lawful right 

And I am sin. 
May I be crucified, 
Strength, lust, low love and pride, 
The life where these abide, 

Self deep within. 



CHURCH SONGS 15 

Thy thorns be on my brow, 
My lips Thy cup drink now, 

Leave not alone ! 
Thy nails my palms now tear, 
My heart Thy spear lay bare, 
Nought, nought of death Oh spare ! 

But help Thine own. 

A double death be seen 
My soul and Thine between 

Oh Calvary ! 
The world to me be dead, 
My heart to it have bled, 
From each the life have fled 

Which draws from Thee. 

Amen. 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
No. 1. 



Oh Living Bread! Oh Living Bread! 

From Thee all beings pure are fed ! 
All live from Thy heart's rich bestow, 

To full desire and overflow. 

The angels round Thy burning throne 
No other bread have ever known; 

They feed from Thee and so they grow 
Like to Thyself in fervent glow. 

The saints redeemed from self and sin 
Live by Thy presence deep within; 

Beneath the flesh, within the heart, 
The bread of life to them Thou art. 



16 CHURCH SONGS 

Thou finer art than most fine wheat; 

Than honey from the rock more sweet; 
Freer than sabbath manna fell, 

And vital more than life can tell. 

Thou, Thou Thyself art living bread! 

Thou, not Thy gifts our lives have fed ! 
With-hold Thy gifts, Thyself Oh give! 

And still with boundless life we live. 

Oh Living Bread ! Oh Living Bread ! 

Thou still wilt feed as Thou hast fed. 
'Tis all Thy glory free to give 

The bread of life by which we live. 



THE MERCY SEAT. 
No. 1. 

Oh Mercy Seat ! Oh Mercy Seat ! 

We fall with gladness at thy feet; 
No place beneath the heightless throne 

Can so attract and hold thy own. 

Thy altar is close close beside 

The cross where Jesus bled and died; 

There thou art just beneath His throne 
For cross nor crown e'er each disown. 

Thou art high heaven's chosen place; 

Thou art the earth's most royal grace; 
For there we both in union meet, 

In vital union rich and sweet. 

The Spirit's lightning breath is thine; 

The Son and all his powers divine; 
The Father and his purity; 

All, all unto thy faith shall be. 



CHURCH SONGS 17 

Thou, thou canst change wild nature's heart; 

Thou, thou canst bid the drought depart; 
Thou travail canst till Christ is born 

In sinful hearts that all hope scorn. 

Oh Mercy Seat ! Oh Mercy Seat ! 

Who would not joy with thee to meet? 
Unite our hearts till life shall be 

One living faith, one prayer to thee. 



OH GLORIFY THY NAME . 

Oh glorify Thy name ! 

Most holy high Triune ! 
Of this vast world and spirit frame 

To Thee alone we tune. 
First fount of life and light, 

Thou dost all hearts inflame : 
Sings grace returning to Thy height 

Oh glorify Thy name ! 

Oh Father most supreme ! 

The Father of the Son ! 
The splendors no archangels dream 

Upon him burst and run. 
Thou art to all through him, 

Source, sustenance, and aim; 
All heaven and earth Thy glories dim, 

Oh glorify Thy name ! 

Oh Son ! Incarnate Son ! 

From heaven Thou earnest down; 
Thy royal life in streams did run 

From nail and spear and crown. 
Thy blood-redeemed hosts now 

Rejoice with loud acclaim; 
Spare limb nor life to crown Thy brow, 

Oh glorify Thy name ! 



18 CHURCH SONGS 

Oh Spirit as divine ! 

Our sins Thy grace doth burn; 
Thou dost the saints with Christ invine, 

Both toward the Father turn. 
As holy as Thou art 

Thou spurnest not our frame; 
Thou art our burning, glowing heart, 

Oh glorify Thy name! 

Oh Trinity Thy name 

Be ever most supreme 
In place and power, in act and fame, 

In love and hope and dream ! 
At each sabbath's commune, 

All heaven and earth proclaim: 
Thou matchless, matchless high Triune 

Oh glorify Thy name! 



GOD'S PRESENCE. 

Oh Thou God of gods supremest! 

Throned upon those azure skies ! 
Bright as suns Thy promise streamest 

Thou wilt never us despise. 
Thy rich promise power is filling; 

Comes Thy presence from on high; 
With a sweetness past our willing 

As no earth friend Thou art nigh. 

Underneath Thou art sustaining, 

Breasting us on mighty arms; 
Singing, Oh such sweet refraining! 

Shielding us from deadly harms. 
Overhead Thy skies enkindle 

Morning and reviving springs, 
Joy and hope that knows no dwindle, 

But still mounts and mounting sings. 



CHURCH SONGS 19 

In our rear Thy power is keeping 

Us from Egypt's backward path; 
On our foes hot bolts are leaping, 

Love within and outward wrath. 
Fronting us Thy cloud is burning 

Blinding noon and flooding night; 
Moving on and Thine own turning 

To the wise and safe and right. 

Far beyond Thy face is smiling; 

O'er us are Thy blessing hands; 
By Thy gifts Thou art beguiling 

Toward Thy high and sun-kissed lands. 
Like an atmosphere and flowing, 

Golden, rich and sweet and deep, 
Thou art round us, and bestowing 

Love and joy Thou canst not keep. 

In us Thou art bursting fountains; 

Life divine and love and light; 
Flowing down from heaven's mountains 

Up Thou bearest to the height. 
Round life's currents now are winging 

Hope and joy and purity; 
Can Thy saints refrain from singing 

Of Thy presence rich and free ? 

Still be with us, 'neath and round us, 

In, above and on before; 
Though a seven-fold furnace bound us 

We are safe as those of yore. 
From and in and to Thee living, 

Up from sin Thy grace did raise; 
For Thy presence, rich thanksgiving, 

Honors, glories, endless praise. 



20 CHURCH SONGS 



CONVICTION. 



Oh divine and holy Spirit ! 

Source of perfect purity; 
Human nature, sin doth sear it, 

Hope of life is but in Thee. 
Come- Oh come ! Oh Spirit hover ! 
Souls of sin and death now cover. 

Come Oh Holiness all glowing! 

White and pure and stainless fire ! 
Thy full nature now be flowing 

'Gainst all sin with fierce desire. 
What soul can touch Thee and not feel 
Electric shocks from Thee unseal ! 

Come ! Let Thy burning life unfold 
Sinners slain and dead in sin ! 

Thy life and light and truth be rolled 
On and round them ! Pour it in ! 

Let burning fire and fiercer heat 

Pierce, search and find where sin doth seat ! 

Come ! Be around them glowing Life ! 

Sin to Thee is most unlike, 
Awake most fierce the mortal strife, 

All Thy being on them strike ! 
Till new and vital piercing pain 
Shall rend the spirit's heart and brain. 

In them be heaven and hell at strife; 

Pain for sin each spirit fill; 
The agony of death and life, 

Circle and return, until 
Contrite, broken, weeping, calling, 
At Thy cross we see them falling. 



CHURCH SONGS 21 



OH FOR A FAITH. 



Oh for a faith of granite cast! 

A bulwark-breasted thing; 
A passion elemental clasped 

For life's inspiring spring; 

One iron-clad and mountain like, 
Fearing not calm nor storm, 

Volcanic fire nor sudden strike 
Of lightnings swift and warm; 

Which men and devils, death and sin, 
Earth, hell, allianced hosts, 

When circled round and centered in, 
Then trembles not but boasts; 

A faith created for the night, 
For battles and dark powers, 

Seeming defeats and clouded sight, 
Delay and suffering hours; 

When all beneath the throne shall fail, 
For conflict join their bands, 

Knows God is sure and shall prevail; 
And shouting "Victory !" stands. 

Oh king with all victorious dower ! 

Forever on Thy throne ! 
Lift faith to equal love and power 

And trust in Thee alone. 



22 CHURCH SONGS 

OH SPIRIT HELP; 

Oh Spirit do not leave me ! 

Oh cast me not away ! 
This fear doth often grieve me, 

I weep e'en as I pray. 
Take not Thy holy presence; 

Draw not convicting light ; 
When sins grieve Thy long presence 

Forgive, nor take Thy flight. 

My heart is hard, unbroken, 

Cold, icy, dark and dead; 
Repentance gives no token, 

Reign winter frosts instead. 
I have small sense of Jesus, 

Of sin or holiness; 
This worst of all diseases 

Oh Spirit heal and bless ! 

Give sense of sins deep hidden ! 

My heart of unbelief, 
My filthy rags forbidden, 

All that may cause Thee grief. 
Breathe on me grace most holy ; 

Break down my pride of soul; 
Oh bend my heart till lowly 

I yield to Christ's control ! 

Rebellion grieves Thee often, 

Remove my heart of stone; 
Thou only hearts can soften 

Now give Thy promised own. 
Give heart for God outreaching; 

Give love for Christ and Thee; 
This is my one beseeching; 

Strive Spirit still with me ! 



CHURCH SONGS 23 

O'er my dark chaos hover; 

Be Thou in sin's mad strife; 
My heart Thy warm wings cover ; 

Create and nourish life; 
Disordered and resisting, 

Thou knew ere Thou began; 
Oh Spirit ne'er desisting 

Still mould me to Thy plan. 

Abide with me Oh Spirit! 

And never, never leave; 
A sin heart I inherit, 

I know Thee I shall grieve. 
Oh cast me not nor leave me ! 

Shall I exhaust Thy grace? 
If sins abounding grieve Thee 

Turn not ! Turn not Thy face ! 

Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! 



THE BANQUET. 

He brought me to the banquet 

Spread in his royal love; 
He cast his banner o'er me 

His trembling turtle dove. 
Soft music as from heaven 

My troubled heart did calm; 
Its peacefulness and sweetness 

Came down like healing balm. 

Sweet breezes from the mountains 

Of od'rous frankincense 
Refresh my feeble pulses 

With vigor most intense. 
I drink from golden chalice 

Filled at the crystal spring; 
The draught is life eternal 

The same as drinks the King. 



24 CHURCH SONGS 

I feast on fruit divinest 

From heaven's bowers brought, 
Its sweetness to my spirit 

Is far surpassing thought. 
The banquet board is ample 

With fruit and bread and wine; 
The Prince Himself waits on me 

With tenderness divine. 

The feast is in the Feaster; 

Christ is the soul of all ; 
The healing balm of music, 

And odors sweet that fall. 
He is the wine celestial 

And manna from above, 
The blessing of each blessing 

The all in all of love. 



THANKSGIVING HYMN. 
No. 1 

Hail Thou God of gods supremest ! 

Thou of gods alone doth live ! 
As the sun his splendors streamest, 

So Thy nature is to give. 
Worlds and men and angels brightest 

Forth Thy soul has brought to birth; 
Through all ages them Thou lightest 

With Thy smile of priceless worth. 

In Thy nature everflowing 

Thou dost bless till bliss is pain; 
Flooding heart with rapture glowing, 

Lifting all from plane to plane; 
Thou art giving, giving, giving, 

Unconfined by time or space; 
Shaming dreams of all things living 

By Thy gifts to every race. 



CHURCH SONGS 

Through our nation wealth unmeasured; 

Mine and mart and wood and field 
Have again their gifts untreasured 

And in these Thy heart revealed. 
From the mountains to the ocean 

Have not flowed such streams as Thine. 
Oh sunlike soul return their motion ! 

Till they reach their source divine. 

Friendship, beauty, aspiration, 

Loves and joys are circled round; 
Gifts of freedom, thought and station, 

More and better still are found. 
Thou hast arched this season's portal 

With a strong and vast desire; 
We are marched as though immortal 

With a heart and hope of fire. 

Then upon this day of thanking 

Who dare mention name but Thine? 
Thought and feeling heaven-ward ranking 

Praise Thee giver most divine. 
All our nature is out-reaching; 

Grateful hearts to Thee we lift; 
Fails, Oh fails our noblest speeching, 

Mighty Giver more than gift ! 

Praise, Oh praise the matchless Giver! 

Melt our souls in gratitude ! 
Flow all hearts and as a river 

Flow toward God with praise bestrewed ! 
Praise and cease thy praises never ! 

Never cease doth God's bestow; 
Hearts and lips and lives forever 

Flow with praise, forever flow ! 



26 CHURCH SONGS 



OH LOVE OF GOD COME IN! 



Oh love of God! Oh love of God! 

The only love that lives 
In this cold earth, and flows abroad 

Nought getting, ever gives; 
Behold the world, its strife and greed, 

Its babble tongues and din; 
Thou art its first, last, only need; 

Oh love of God come in ! 

All round are hearts of ice and stone, 

Hard, cold and dead and lost; 
By life and death for ever thrown, 

And farther from Thee tossed; 
Shall these about Thee never dream 

But still grow worse in sin? 
That Thou through us on them may stream 

Oh love of God come in ! 

If filled with Thee, for them we live 

As Christ did live for thine; 
Then we our gifts and self can give, 

Our lives for theirs resign. 
No service work love e'er withholds 

What e'er men are or been; 
The worse they are the more unfolds 

Oh love of God come in ! 

Thou hast for them high heaven's sight; 

Her time and strength are thine; 
And since once crucified, the right 

To make the worst divine. 
Thou hast the faith that dares to claim; 

The prayers that always win; 
The vital message in his name ; 

Oh love of God come in ! 



CHURCH SONGS 27 

Oh love of God ! Oh love of God ! 

Spring in our hearts and flow ! 
Through all the earth be spread abroad 

And all toward heaven grow ! 
May thousands by each life be won, 

Joined more to Thee than kin; 
To sing the song Thou hast begun, 

Oh love of God come in! 

THE MERCY SEAT. 
No. 2. 

Oh Mercy Seat! Oh Mercy Seat! 

We fall with gladness at thy feet; 
No place beneath the heightless throne 

Can so attract and hold thy own. 

Though tempest storms on lightning blast 
Our heavens above with darkness cast, 

Though all earth have no sheltering breast 
Round thee we find eternal rest. 

The fearful, trembling, sore and faint, 
Breathe out to thee their dumb complaint; 

A few short moments doth endower 

The weakest with world conquering power. 

Here shines the promises most bright, 

Like stars upon the face of night; 
Nor cloud nor mist nor veil are thine 

For God burns all and full doth shine. 

Here deepest loss is turned to gain; 

Here richest joys grow out of pain; 
Our tears, our shame and even wrong 

Thou changest into music strong. 

Oh Mercy Seat! Oh Mercy Seat! 

Who would not joy with thee to meet? 
Unite our hearts till life shall be 

One living faith, one prayer to thee. 



28 CHURCH SONGS 



ARISE OH CHURCH. 

Arise Oh Church! Arise! 

Arise out of thy sleep ! 
These slumbers now Oh instant shake ! 

Oh shake them to the deep ! 
Shall sloth and idle rest, 

Shall dark and worldly dreams 
This day of days round heart and mind 

Dance with deceitful gleams? 

When shall these slumbers wake? 

Oh hurl them far and deep! 
Behind black clouds new mornings break 

Upon yon future's steep; 
Before that splendor lights 

One hour with fiercest foes; 
Up ! Gird you ! Gird you for the fight ! 

Oh spurn this short repose ! 

Shall sin and death and time? 

The world and wealth and power 
With charm and incantation chime 

Thy spirit slave this hour? 
This hour the most supreme 

Of ages lifts her cries; 
While visions splendid on thee stream 

Arise ! Oh Church arise ! 

Rise with the ancient faith; 

The first and burning love; 
The life no loss can kill or scathe; 

Prayer winged to plead above; 
Rise with the Christ in heart; 

The Christ who died and lives; 
Who saves and keeps and doth impart 

All grace and himself gives. 



CHURCH SONGS 29 

The trembling times do wait, 

They wait Oh church for thee ! 
Though nature, men and gifts are great 

No hope but fear we see. 
If thy pure blessing fail 

More gifts but curse our cries; 
Hope of the world thou canst prevail ! 

Arise ! Oh Church arise. 



LIFE, LOVE AND LIGHT. 

Thou art the life and light and love 

Of all that e'er can be; 
All earth beneath and heaven above 

Thou feedest rich and free; 
And Thou art more than life and light 
Or love with warmest beauties bright. 

Thou art the life of those that live; 

From Thee we first begun; 
But fountains purer Thou dost give 

That higher rise and run. 
The lowest blessing of Thy grace 
Surpass the height of Adam's race. 

Thou art the light of those that see; 

All stars and rainbows bright, 
All summer mornings dawn from Thee, 

Thou art the noon's delight; 
If so on earth Thy splendors shine 
What art Thou in Thy heavens divine? 

Thou art the love of those that give, 

The warm impulse to part, 
The gift of self by which we live, 

And heart within the heart. 
To give not get is highest joy, 
A heaven on earth is Thy employ. 



30 CHURCH SONGS 

Thou art the love and light and life; 

Yea ! More than heart can dream ! 
Without Thee all is loss and strife, 

But with Thee oceans stream. 
More than the life and light and love, 
Thou art the heaven of heaven above. 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
No. 2. 

Oh Living Bread ! Oh Living Bread ! 

From Thee all beings pure are fed ! 
All live from Thy heart's rich bestow, 

To full desire and overflow. 

When famine-striken, faint and sore, 
When life and time had bread no more, 

Thou fedest with the bread divine 
Till hunger new for Thee did pine. 

The deepest hunger of long years, 
Of sin and loss, of pain and tears, 

Was more than met and we were fed 
With Thine own life, with living bread. 

Apart from Thee the strongest die; 

With Thee on eagle's wings we fly; 
Nor earth nor hell nor all they breed 

Out-wears the strength that Thou dost feed. 

Thou art a boundless, boundless store 

Of life, rich life forever more; 
Faith, love and hope, joy, peace and truth, 

And ardors of immortal youth. 

Oh Living Bread ! Oh Living Bread ! 

Thou still wilt feed as Thou has fed; 
Tis all Thy glory free to give 

The bread of life by which we live. 



CHURCH SONGS 31 



SOUL REFINER. 

Soul Refiner to the fashion 

Of God's image most divine, 
Near the furnace of white passion 

Thou dost purge Thy priestly line: 
Heat! Oh heat the furnace flaming! 

Seven-fold hotter than before! 
What can be my soul's reclaiming 

But a fire to pierce life's core? 

Take my soul with sin so ingrained, 

Lead me to the furnace fire, 
In its focused flame, white, unstained, 

Plunge me in is my desire ! 
Hold me while electric burning 

Shoots through will and heart and brain; 
Piercing, searching, finding, spurning, 

Remnants of my sin's ingrain. 

Should I struggle in my anguish? 

Should I question, weep or groan? 
Should the strength of mortal languish? 

Spare not, spare nor heed my moan. 
Hold me in its central glowing! 

Let the fire be most intense ! 
Thy thrice holy nature flowing 

Burn around all pride and sense. 

Purge me till Thy image shinest 

In my measure like to Thine; 
Holiness Thy grace divinest 

Mirror its pure soul in mine. 
Till before Thy presence burning 

And Thy unveiled Spirit's might, 
I can stand and for it yearning 

Find it my supreme delight. 



32 CHURCH SONGS 



COME SPIRIT COME. 



Come Spirit come ! Oh Life of heaven's Triune ! 

High central heart where Father and where Son 
Unite in their most blessed mystic commune, 
And life and love their highest circles run. 
Spirit of Jesus ! Spirit of love ! 
Fill ! Fill our bosoms as filled are those above ! 

Come Spirit come ! Love burning, flaming, glowing ! 

Passion intense and whitest purity ! 
Yet soft and warm, Thy fullness gently flowing 
Fills each high heart that sinks in trust on Thee. 
Spirit of Jesus ! Spirit of love ! 
Fill ! Fill our bosoms as filled are those above ! 

Come Spirit come ! Consume me this desire, 

Which Thy free grace kindles in my cold heart. 
An angel bright and warm with Thine own fire 
My longing soul sends pleading Thy impart. 
Spirit of Jesus ! Spirit of love ! 
Fill ! Fill our bosoms as filled are those above ! 

Come Spirit come ! Oh life of love immortal ! 

None, none without ! In Thee alone hearts run ; 
Enclose me now in Thy heart's golden portal 
To live and love with Father and with Son. 
Spirit of Jesus ! Spirit of love ! 
Fill ! Fill our bosoms as filled are those above ! 

Come Spirit come ! In ever growing measure 

This Thine own heart for mine has strangely willed ; 
Be it my life and green hope's gladdest pleasure 
This empty heart forever filling, filled. 
Spirit of Jesus ! Spirit of love ! 
Fill ! Fill our bosoms as filled are those above ! 



CHURCH SONGS 33 

CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS. 
No. 2. 

Crown him with many crowns ! 

The high, creating king! 
Space, time, and suns, and bright renowns, 

Beings that love and sing! 
From worm to seraphim, 

Each in the hierarch, 
Creation's strong crescendo hymn 

Now lift, while he doth hark. 

Crown him the Lord of might ! 

A million million suns 
With splendor, weight, power and delight 

Around his footstool runs. 
Of all the central soul, 

He holds their golden chains 
In his right hand, and hears them roll 

Their strong eonic strains. 

Crown him the Lord of life ! 

From his own breast was born 
The being clothing primal strife 

With beauty's bright adorn. 
To flowers, birds and men 

The fountains of his heart, 
Where'er they dwell, in sun or fen, 

Its streams of life impart. 

Crown him the Lord of love ! 

On his warm, heaving breast 
The universe below, above, 

Sleeps like a babe at rest. 
His love unearned, unsought, 

Is working with its might, 
And watching still with mother thought 

Each birth of noon and night. 



34 CHURCH SONGS 

Crown him the Lord of goals ! 

He plans most kingly states, 
His ends each year as time unrolls 

Are new and culminates 
The seraph hope's best dream 

Will stand dumb with surprise, 
While being in diviner gleam 

Shall rise and ever rise. 

Crown him with many crowns ! 

Round heaven's highest throne 
The galaxy celestial drowns 

All songs as him they own. 
Crown him with many crowns ! 

Come all creations bright, 
The splendors of your high renowns 

Around his brow unite ! 



NATURE SONGS 



THE AZURE DOME. 

Oh the azure dome ! Oh the azure dome ! 

My first and my last and my noblest home ! 
The home of my spirit's immortal birth 

Ere I fell to sin and the sorrow of earth. 

Around me it lays like a world of dream, 
And its vital powers ever on me stream, 

To waken the thought and the sense divine 
That will beauty see and with it entwine. 

Through my meteor years it has stretched to view 
A vision as great as the soul when true. 

Its fullness and all on the eyes have grown 
As my nature has with the strife and moan. 

The blue of the birds, the flowers and the sea, 
The mountain jewels, or whatever may be 

By the art of man or his wisdom dyed 
Are buried in shame in their hour of pride. 

Unfocus the light ! Could a rainbow tint 

Such a shade on the curtains of noonday print? 
Or prism divide such a soul of blue 
' From the hidden heart of the white so true? 

Oh summon the dreams ! all the dreams of delight 
From the height of day and the depth of night. 

Could the mingled light of a magic dream 
Throw a rival hue from her weaver's beam? 



36 NATURE SONGS 

Could the poet soul with the eye divine 

That can brighter see than the lights that shine, 

From the worlds of his love and joy and hope 
Bring a beam like that on the morning slope? 

All of earth and art and dream were a patch, 
As a ragged cloud on that breast would match. 

And though blending near to the matchless blue 
Oh what is a scrap to the deeps we view! 

What a life and love when the springtime breath 
Have the blossoms kissed from their graves of death ! 

And the rain-washed sky doth embosom the earth 
As a mother does her beloved birth. 

Though the waves are bright and the grass is green, 
More vital than ever the eyes have seen, 

All the dreamlike earth though we feel it nigh 
Is lost to the heart when we look on high. 

What a rest and peace when the summer heat 
Has pulsed the air to a quivering beat ! 

And motionless, silent, serene and deep 

Are the infinite calms that are there asleep. 

Not a fleecy cloud in the hemisphere; 

Not a phantom, shadow or nameless fear ; 
Not a sign of storm or a sound profane 

On that windless, tideless and landless main. 

What a pride and power when the autumn's wealth 
Into all forms press with perfection's health ! 

And around the ripened and rainbow globe 
Is the azure deep as a royal robe. 

A majesty, splendor, pomp and repose 
On the atmosphere and horizon glows; 

As a dream they move all in stately march 
To the land of dreams through the purple arch. 



NATURE SONGS 37 

What a hope and joy on a winter day 

When a month of clouds has been blown away ! 

And the sky though pale from the icy air 
We hail with delight as a vision rare. 

Though the dark storm clouds and the sworded ice 
Blast all our dreams of an earth paradise, 

Despite of the frost they float on our eyes 
Through the opening rifts of the azure skies. 

When the morning sun from the deep of night 
With his countenance of effulgent light, 

First rose to the earth for his daily race 
He smiled to behold such a matchless grace. 

When the noonday sun first became a king 
And created things did beneath him swing, 

He enrobed his breast with the morning blue 
Though he first baptized to a deeper hue. 

When the evening sun first descended deep 

That the day, the earth and her babes might sleep, 

'Twas the robe of noon but with stars divine 
He spread on the pain of their aching eyne. 

When the midnight sun doth his circles fill 
And leaves us to night in the nurse's skill, 

He inspires the dreams of the golden skies 
And with azure hope fills our wak'ning eyes. 

The sun-born daughters with their rainbow dress, 
Their splendor, their motions and joyousness, 

How they rise from earth and to heaven cling 
Or sail on the blue with an eagle wing ! 

What a home so fit for their spirits free 
As the deepless deeps of the sky and sea? 

Is the blue more soft that the fleecy dress 

Which their golden sire does upon them bless? 



38 NATURE SONGS 

What a stainless course and how free from noise ! 

What a changing form and a bird-like poise ! 
Though they need it not they forever rest 

As they rise and fall on that passioned breast. 

How they rise and fall, how they come and go 
In the azure fields like the isles of snow! 

All earth's flowing streams with delightful eyes 
Watch the sun and clouds in the azure skies. 

That divinest dome and her infinite deep, 

That heightless height and her boundless sweep, 

That nature of passion and purity 
Is a royal nurse of the best we be. 

The immortal soul with the sense divine 

That is drugged to sleep with this earthly wine 

Of the sorrow, sin and the selfish greed 
That each to himself and to others feed, 

Awakes with joy and supreme delight 
From the trances deep of this awful night 

And enraptured looks with a vast surprise 
At the beauty throned on the azure skies. 

Her hue and her height, and her breadth and length, 
Her victory, splendor and royal strength, 

Feeds into the soul the immortal sense 
Till the heart and mind light the countenance. 

With the glowing heats of a spirit's flame 
She aspires to rise to the whence she came; 

So she soars on high with majestic sweep 
To the native spheres that her virtues keep. 

Those celestial spirits of purity 

Are the vital draughts of futurity; 
And v/hen drinking there we forever soar 

With eternal life though we pant for more. 



NATURE SONGS 39 

When we live on high, when we drink that life, 
How our fountains flow ! and our fancies rife 

Are full as the heart of poetic thought 
And leaps from the lips of the least untaught. 

There all that we are and all that we find 
With enraptured joy for the heart and mind, 

Are symbols to man from the Holy and High 
Who is throned on the arch of the pillared sky. 

What eons as waves have beneath thee rolled 
The mountains, the seas or the stars ne'er told, 

For before their birth was spread thy adorn 
As a mother's love round the babe unborn. 

What a fresh young life and a new born grace 
Is mirrored to earth in thy cloudless face ! 

Old, old as thou art, thou art ever new 
When we lift our hearts for another view. 

What a granite strength like the strength of truth 
When young with the life and the hope of youth ! 

Though the mountain range long the storms defy 
It is whirlwind dust to the girdled sky. 

What an unrobed nature of purity 

Too pure for the eyes of the most to see, 

Doth circle us round and on conscience streams 
Both a silence deep and most solemn dreams ! 

What a changeless love round a world of stain, 
Where the moral hopes in their birth are slain ! 

Over human sin thus so crimson crowned 
It has never darkened or wrinkling frowned. 

What a Spirit vast and what matchless grace 
Both around his breast and upon his face, 

Must be throned afar and to mortal eyes 
Thus symbols himself in the azure skies ! 



40 NATURE SONGS 

On what and where is the mortal hour 
With its boast and pride and its works of power, 

When the solemn sight of the azure sky 
Doth attract the flesh and the spirit's eye! 

Oh what is the strife and the greed of gain 
With its Cain-like brow of a brother slain, 

When we look aloft at the solemn sight 
And silent stand in her floods of light! 

Oh what is time and her fevered dream 
Of the mighty hosts that forever stream 

When we pause and gaze with prophetic look 
At the symbols spread on that opened book! 

Oh men of the city ! whose skiey strips 

The crowd and the noise and the smoke eclipse, 

With eclipse so dark that the heart and eye 
Is blind to the earth and the powers on high : 

In thy day of strength and the greed of gain, 
In the hour of grief and of loss and pain, 

Go up to the towers and just take a view 
Of the hemisphere and the boundless blue. 

Does the breath of spring and the dew of youth, 
The rapture of hope and the strength of truth 

Seem forever fled ? Oh ! the Spirit there 

But waits with his gifts for the look of prayer. 

Is day as the night and night as the deep 
When chaotic storms on her bosom leap? 

The night shall be day and day be as bright 
As the heavens above and her seas of light. 

Has death in his arms bore thy love away 
And left thee alone to the beasts of prey? 

There is peace and calm and a higher love 
To fall in thy heart from the skies above. 



NATURE SONGS 41 

Whatever the sorrows that make thee lean 
Go forth and stand where the skies are seen; 

Just stand and behold and the azure towers 
Shall lift thy heart with divinest powers. 

For the spirit's home is the azure dome 
Where e'er in the deserts of earth he roam, 

As the gardened bowers and their perfumed flowers 
Is the home of birds and the summer hours. 

As the bridal isles and their golden smiles 
Is the lovers' home and their heart beguiles, 

So the sky above and her purity 
Is the home of love and her spirits free. 

'Tis the home of all, but the poet heart 
There finds himself and the noblest art; 

For the art and the artist are undivine 

Till they lose themselves and in others shine. 

Oh prophetic soul of celestial birth ! 

There is nought for thee in the greed of earth, 
But the earth herself which her sons despise 

And the heavens above and her azure skies. 

There the atmosphere can so vitalize, 

That the heart and mind with a vast surprise 

Will behold with awe yet delirious mirth 
The natures divine of poetic birth. 

For the worlds that swim in that azure dome 
Mock Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome; 

This was only made for an infant's time 
But those to the scale of a manhood's prime. 

The beauty there that we worship must 
Of the rainbow cloud and the starry dust, 

Of the golden suns and the moons of light 
Will enrobe thy song in their beauty bright. 



42 NATURE SONGS 

And the music there of the crystal spheres 
That is only heard by immortal peers 

Will around thee ring, and circle thy verse 
With harmonies based on the awful curse. 

Those passioned powers will palpitate 
Rich into thy heart the extatic state 

That forms the divine to forever stay 
When the phantom man and his works decay. 

Then Oh for the plain and the hemisphere 
Where the earth is bare and the heavens clear ! 

With naught on the heart to obscure the view 
Of pavilioning, deep and redeeming blue. 

And Oh for the summit of mountain height 
Where the soul is bathed in the liquid light! 

And the visions and pleasures and powers intense 
Are felt in the tissues of mortal sense. 

And Oh for the days of aerial skill 

When his cloud-like car he can mount at will ! 
And at morning, noon and at twilight dim 

In that ocean deep will delight to swim. 

And Oh for the days when this mortal chain 
By a mighty hand will be rent in twain ! 

And my spirit free as the eagles are 

Will drink from the noon and the midnight star. 

And Oh for eternity's lightning wings 
When the spirit soars and forever sings ! 

Oh forever soars with eternal rise 

In the life and the love of the azure skies ! 



NATURE SONGS 43 

THE ROSE. 

A maiden fair as morning birth 

And pure as morning snows, 
In gratitude for truth I taught 

Placed in my hand a rose. 
When she gave me her simple gift 

A tear her eye did wet; 
The soul that blossomed in her face 

I never can forget, 
For she was not like other maids, 

But deep and glad and true. 
God's purity still shed on her 

Its sweet divinest dew. 

This rose which she had given me 

I bore it to my room; 
Its love and light that lonely place 

Did clear of every gloom. 
Its beauty was a soul who sent 

Enchantment through the air, 
Which by the strength of its pure life 

Afar did banish care. 
With such a sight before mine eyes 

And such an air to drink, 
I only could give up myself 

With joy and love to think. 

This rose was robed in purest white, 

Just tinging into cream ; 
And silvered with the early dew 

Sprinkled from morning stream. 
The queen of beauty came to her 

From paradise above, 
And brought a garment for her child, 

Rich folds of light and love. 
Such flow of dress the chosen maid 

Has wished for in her dream, 
But never such for happy bride 

Was ever found I ween. 



44 NATURE SONGS 

The soul of this sweet rose breathed forth 

A most delicious breath; 
So calm, so sweet, so rich, so pure, 

It o'er came envious death; 
It spread itself around the room 

And on my dear loved books, 
The souls of poets travelling on 

Turned round with wondering looks. 
That breath was far too strong for me 

As warmth is for the snow, 
I felt it pierce through all my frame 

And to my dead heart go. 

Because in her pure world of love 

There is no thought of sin 
She bared her bosom to the air 

To fan the love within. 
Her bodice folds were gently turned 

And in her heaving breast 
The soul of beauty was laid bare 

Most modest and most blest. 
No blush upon her cheek did burn, 

But light and love divine; 
Through all her frame her crystal soul . 

Upon my soul did shine. 

That glowing breast a love revealed, 

A passion most intense; 
It kindled in my frozen heart 

A love too strong for sense. 
The gentle rose did not reject 

This growing love of mine, 
But whispered as love only can 

"I seek that heart of thine." 
So I drew near this living soul 

And looked down in her breast; 
Such love and beauty and delight 

May never be expressed. 



NATURE SONGS 45 

Her gentle breath upon my cheek 

Was warm as summer rain; 
Her presence thus so near to me 

Was cleansing every stain. 
Her love had kindled mine so strong 

My fears passed in eclipse; 
My head bent down, hers gently rose 

To meet my offered lips. 
They meet, and from her soul there flowed 

A life ne'er known before; 
It swept me from this world of crime 

To some enchanted shore. 

A lover never kissed a maid 

And through his bosom thrilled, 
As from thy heart, Oh happy rose ! 

My empty heart was filled. 
It seemed as on thy lips most pure 

Were sprinkled sacred dews, 
So thee alone of things divine 

The All in all could choose 
To send into my empty soul 

A throb of his own life, 
And thus through thy sweet purity 

To calm my mortal strife. 

So this is why I love the rose, 

Of flowers the virgin queen; 
The love that in her bosom glows 

Is that of the Unseen. 
His life beats through earth's pulsing frame 

To touch the human heart; 
The flower his winning smile of love 

To draw with him apart. 
Go gaze upon the rose's art! 

Go watch her bosom burn! 
Go place thy soul beside her heart 

And feel him for thee yearn ! 



46 NATURE SONGS 



THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. 



Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Spirits pure and bright ! 
Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 
Round a court of light, 
A host of spirits blest and fairy-like to sight. 

Where are these dancers gay? 

Where is the court you spy ? 
The spirit, elf and fay 

That on your vision fly, 
And raise out of your heart this glad extatic cry? 

Where? Yonder where from olden 
Time built old winter's throne; 

Where summer summer golden 
Is never never known, 
But Iceland's ancient king rules all the polar zone. 

Yonder where night's curtain 

The storms in anger blow; 
Where never is uncertain 

Vast field of ice and snow, 
And clear and frosty nights and furry Eskimo. 

Yonder where the mountains 

Pure ices diadem; 
Where the crystal fountains 

Mount geyser-like to them; 
And where the glacier flows and icebergs ocean gem. 

Yonder on the summit 

Around the polar star; 
Climbing up the plummit 

And coming from afar. 
See ! See the dancers come in reindeer driven car. 



NATURE SONGS 47 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Fairy, elf and sprite ! 
Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Phantoms of delight ! 
Nature's dreams from far in poet robes bedight. 

These in white enrobe, 

As if floretted snow 
From yon pure silver globe 

Around their forms did blow, 
To rival and to shame all gowns others bestow. 

These in blue are clad, 

As if the azure deep 
A portion of his plaid 

Had cast round them to keep, 
To be in royal style at that extatic leap. 

That in green is dressed, 

As if the flowers and grass 
Nature wove and pressed 

And gave to some sweet lass, 
And laughed unto herself that she would all surpass. 

That in red is tinged, 

As if the setting sun 
A straying fleece had singed 

And sent it on the run 
To fashion's famous ball and dared to be outdone. 

Here comes the poet's sons 

Clad in robes divine; 
The royal purple ones 

He sent to lead the line, 
And knew within himself that none would them outshine. 

Here comes the maiden's race, 

Dreams from her heart and mind; 

Oh the pansy pansy grace 
That round them has been twined, 
And brighter beauties still upon their faces kind ! 



48 NATURE SONGS ' ' 

Others rainbow tinted, 

As stalactites of ice 
The liquid waters printed 

With their prismic device 
And gave a magic robe a joy could never price. 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

What a mazy flight ! 
Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

On our mortal sight 
Every motion, style and grace joy ever dreamt at night 

Forward with a bound; 

Backward with a glide; 
Then turning round and round 

Till the head does dizzy ride; 
Then promenading up, and in from side to side. 

Now hand in hand they go; 

Now swinging left and right; 
Now up the center so; 
Now spinning swift as sight; 
Oh it is a mazy crowd and drunken with delight ! 

Fantastic, straight, fair, 

Sudden, now and then, 
Yonder, here and there, 

Unseen and in our ken; 
Mocking us and all our what and why and when? 

Rising, high and oft, 

Frosty, straight and strong, 
Sinking, silent, soft, 

Narrow, thin and long, 
And if our sense could hear Oh singing what a song ! 

Moving, quick and mad, 

Crystal, pure and clear, 
Conical and glad, 

Enthroned and far and near, 
Celestial and divine as being can appear. 



NATURE SONGS 49 

Oh round and round and round, 

Like figures in a dream 
These poet spirits bound 

To music like a stream 
That burst within the heart with an overflowing teem. 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Souls of electric light! 
Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 
Essential natures bright ! 
Bodiless and beautiful as ever met the sight ! 

How we sluggish mortals 

Wonder and admire, 
When these kingdom portals 

Are opened, and its fire 
Is flashed upon our sight but dreams of something higher ! 

How earth and sea and sky 

Are lifted with delight, 
When yonder there on high 

They rise upon the sight; 
And draws all nature up as moons the ocean bright ! 

How the stars that sprinkle 

All the dome of space, 
Twinkle, brighter twinkle 

In their nocturnal race, 
When these celestial beauties are circling in their grace ! 

How youth and maid on pinions 

Here hasten with entrance; 
Flaming sword dominions 
Nor hinders their advance; 
Welcome! Welcome! Welcome youth! Come! Mingle in 
the dance ! 

How the poet's pleasure 

Is passing into pain ! 
His joys like their own measure 

Is swelling every vein, 
Inspiring fancy's fairy forms around his heart and brain. 



50 NATURE SONGS 

How ! How his very dreams 

Grow passionate and faint ! 
Grow thirsty for new streams 

To drink away complaint 
Which these on high inspire and perfect blessing taint ! 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Upon our visions caught; 
Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Till we are lost in thought, 
In brighter dreams divine and higher wisdom taught. 

What revelry and sports 

Upon that mountain height ! 
What carnival that courts 
Such spirits of delight! 
Oh what extatic bliss of touch and sound and sight ! 

That scene it is the joy 

That filleth nature's heart; 
And the height of her employ 

Is without a price to bart 
Her happiness of life to all that of her art. 

What divinest glory 

Before the eye has sailed ? 
What harmony or story 
Or prophecy been hailed? 
What life and love and light and truth have been unveiled ? 

That beauty does entrance, 

That love their hearts inflame, 
That song impel to dance, 

That hope and starry fame, 
Which we have seldom felt and never think or claim. 

Where the souls are purest 

They dwell above the spheres ; 
Then freedom is securest, 
And life exempt from fears, 
And joy contagious, quick and sweet as that which here 
appears. 



NATURE SONGS 51 

Where a love is living 

Tis full and sweet and pure; 
Rejoicing in its giving 

And thus is most secure; 
The heart that gives its all and self forever shall endure. 

Where the life is deepest 

Is mountings oft and high ; 
And as it upward leapest 

With joy's extatic cry- 
It finds and lives within the life that fills the azure sky. 

Where the light is brightest 
Appears the most divine ; 
Wherever beauty lightest 
It is a rainbow sign, 
That God is seeking thus to draw thy heart with his to 
twine. 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Through the live-long night. 
Entrancing! Oh entrancing 

With magic magic might ! 
For mortal and immortal are the dreams of love and light. 

A SAUCER OF PANSIES. 

In the spring my mother plants 

A bed of pansies fine; 
Then with a gardener's glance 

She nurses them divine, 
Until the blossom pants 

And bursts into the shine. 

Then every other day 

A saucerful as bright 
As beauty ever lay 

Before the poet's sight, 
She plucks and bears away 

My simple room to light. 



52 NATURE SONGS 

When I come home and dress, 
And call my own an hour, 

I note the kindliness 

That placed the rainbow flower, 

And in it breathed I guess 
Another heart and dower. 

To-day the purple deep 
The yellow beauties fringe; 

Blue and white to-morrow sleep 
On a bank of velvet singe; 

And the very rainbows leap 

Where there tender edges hinge. 

Upon the pansies bright 

I dream and dream and dream, 

Of visions of delight 

With which my youth did teem, 

But life with deadly blight 
Has flung on autumn's stream. 

I see the heights divine 

That are throned above the spheres ; 
And I pine and pine and pine 

Mid my sin and grief and fears 
And my heart bursts in my eyne 

With the language of our tears. 

That world upon me flies 
Which sorrow brings to birth, 

That is builded in the skies 

When the self sinks in the earth, 

And the living God doth rise 
In the heart that now has worth. 

Oh flowers of purity ! 

Oh dreams of life and light ! 
In the saucer I can see 

The heaven's heightless height; 
But shall I ever be 

Like thy flowers and dreams bedight. 



NATURE SONGS 53 

SPRING HYMN. 

Hail springtime Oh hail ! 

Hail soul of the year! 
Thy cold winter veil 

Has passed and its fear: 
Has passed and thy glory 

Streams bright on the earth, 
Which cold, weak and hoary, 

Renews her young birth. 

The dome of deep blue, 

With sun on his throne, 
Rains pure golden dew 

Which all things now own. 
The earth doth unfolden 

Her bosom's warm glow, 
And life with a golden 

Reviving doth glow. 

The flowers doth unfold 

Their rainbow hearts deep; 
Birds plumaged with gold 

Their songs cannot keep ; 
The forests and oceans, 

The fountains and fields, 
Are glad with emotions 

Thy presence unseals. 

All nature is green; 

Her skies are more blue 
Than mortals have seen 

Since Eden was new. 
The beauty of story 

And heavenly mirths, 
Now mirror their glory 

In green singing births. 



54 NATURE SONGS 

Life now is all love 

And love is all life; 
Like heaven above 

It healeth all strife. 
In love's vital passion 

Are powers which unfold 
The lowest in fashion 

We joy to behold. 

Hail soul of the spring! 

Oh breathe thy warm breath ! 
To breathe, shine and sing 

Thou wakest all death. 
Away my heart's sin sense 

And sorrow's wild wail ! 
Thy beauty and incense 

And music all hail ! 

METEORS AND STARS. 

A blazing rocket mounting to the air, 
Leaves in its wake a line of crimson light; 
Aloft it bursts, and colored streams most fair 
Play as a fountain 'gainst the dome of night. 
This sudden, brilliant and fantastic sight 
Draws every eye, and while its bosom burns 
Pales the eternal stars; then from its height 
In that same gaze to earth it quick returns, 
To splutter, hiss and sink mid ocean's scornful urns. 

As men are born, so each dynamic life 
Is winged to mount this firmament of fire; 
In that majestic peace which mocks our strife 
Find the bright place for which high hearts aspire. 
In our quick, mortal, blind and mad desire 
For yonder vacant thrones, wings of feeble flame 
Are stricken dumb by storms of jealous ire; 
And millions fall to darkness when they came, 
To watch with envious eyes the few swift souls of fame. 



NATURE SONGS 55 

These souls mount up, and as warm dizzy flights 
Kindles bright dreams within the meteor's trance, 
So their being burns anew. Golden delights 
Around them shine, and their celestial dance, 
Almighty power and solar lightning glance 
For one short hour dims e'en the light of noon ; 
Then weakness does each quick, glad, silver lance 
Of spirit light eclipse, while star and moon 
Watch their descending flight to some foul dark lagoon. 

For souls burning from self may burn most bright; 
Spread heaven's light, and herald earth's late morn; 
But selfishness, time's deadly coldest blight, 
The vital spark from seraph souls has torn; 
From glowing heart and flaming mind has borne 
The light that clove their dark and natal gloom, 
And hissing in sin's salty sea of scorn 
Plunged them down, and gave the vacant room 
To souls of purer fire bursting from death's last tomb. 

Those spirits scorched by life's quick fiery scorn 
Till selfishness is cindered, cold and dead, 
With an immortal life anew are born, 
And from the heart of primal fire are fed. 
Fire soft, pure, sweet, swift and strong as ever sped 
The electric currents through archangel's wings 
Is theirs; and since to life and love is wed 
The high ideal, their inmost being springs 
From tombs of death to life and thrones that wait their kings. 

Through mortal night with lightning woven storms, 
Through thunder crash and elemental wrath, 
Through swarming hosts of demoniac forms 
Whose envious hate resists their destined path 
Skyward, love's pure resistless heart which hath 
A robe of strength and motion round them flung, 
Burns with her glowing countenance a swath 
Through their deep belt of foes ; and all that clung 
Around their new-born soul before their flight are stung. 



56 NATURE SONGS 

Then as a globe and comet train of fire, 
In most majestic curves toward heaven's height 
Sweeps her bright way, and brighter as she higher 
Mounts the path through constellated night: 
So souls of love, with splendor, joy and might 
Pinion aloft to life's awaiting skies; 
While mid our flames of flickering lurid light, 
A million hearts wih their sad filmy eyes, 
Behold their age's sight with hate or glad surprise. 

From golden, poised and never wearied wings, 
Upon that mass of helpless death below 
The spirit's best and purest gift she flings: 
The light of love upon their selfish woe; 
The love of light to feed their heart's faint glow; 
On their dark hearts and shadowed countenance 
A living dream which beckons them to go, 
Toward that pure Soul, whose love and gladness dance 
In these soft saving beams upon their mortal glance. 

Then far above on heaven's destined thrones, 
Firm set within the firmament which time 
Pavilions round this darkness, death and groans, 
They shine forever bright. From towers sublime 
They scatter light which neither curse nor crime 
Can long eclipse, nor if they would, not see. 
Though age on age like waves each other climb, 
And selfishness her dark clouds still set free, 
High throned the lights of love shine to eternity. 

THE ROBIN. 

Oh crimson breast ! Oh crimson breast ! 

Oh crimson crimson heart ! 
Oh welcome guest ! Oh welcome guest ! 

Thou dost my fancies start. 
Inspire and rapture and employ 
Are born in nature's peace and joy. 



NATURE SONGS 57 

Thy sisterhood of brighter plume 

And lyric hearted song, 
Have left the city to its doom 

And in green forests throng. 
But city park, and garden trees, 
Thy human heart doth equal please. 

What human heart ! What human heart ! 

After a winter's reign, 
Has never leaped with joyful start 

At thy first springtime strain? 
At thy first note we lift our eyes 
As after rainbows in the skies. 

And when at night they all come home 

From worry, toil and strife, 
When strength and hope that daily roam 

At eve join babe and wife, 
Thy crimson breast our eyes have seen 
With these pure loves is mixed between. 

Across our spring and summer light 

Thy bosom glad we see; 
We sorrow when the autumn's blight 

Afar doth banish thee. 
In winter storms we sometimes yearn 
For thee to hail the spring's return. 

Thou hast no strength or speed or skill, 

No weapon for the fight ; 
No eagle talon, sworded bill 

Or war enkindling sight; 
Thou wast not made for hate or strife, 
For selfishness or mortal life. 

But thou art rest and peace and love 

And close to human heart; 
Thou dost incarnate from above 

A small divine impart 
Of that one love which does divide 
In all pure loves through time and tide. 



53 NATURE SONGS 

Thou hast no plumage of delight, 
As sun-kissed clouds on high; 

As tintings on the flower beds bright, 
Or iris colored eye; 

Rich beauties that from heaven shine 

Are not a heritage of thine. 

But beauty oft is shining form 

Without a soul within; 
Thy life domestic, pure and warm 

Is far away from sin. 
The stainless, pure and passioned heart 
Needs not the rainbow hues of art. 

Thy soul has no delirious strain 
That wakes my sleeping dreams, 

That bears me to a golden plane 
Of odors, sounds and gleams; 

No music matchless and divine 

That fills all hearts till more we pine. 

Thy one and simple pleasing song 
Is calm and faith and love; 

Divorcing from the earthly throng, 
Uniting us above. 

All simple loves from ill divide 

And join with all beyond the tide. 

Thy cheery song that greets the morn, 
Thy plaintive evening psalm, 

Upon a world by sorrow torn 
It falls as healing balm. 

Oh what is earth's most peerless song 

To a pure love on sinful wrong? 

As is the lay of child or wife, 

As is the song of home, 
Unto the measures vast of life, 

And classic airs of Rome, 
So is thy music to the heart 
With something these could never bart. 



NATURE SONGS 59 

Then build beside my crowded home, 

Thy blue eggs softly nest; 
The gardens round for forage roam 

But turn thee to thy nest. 
To see thee and thy happy mate 
Is more than earth's high gilded state. 

Through fever day and dewy night, 

Extreme of calm and storm, 
Thy nature with a deep delight 

Beats through thy bosom warm, 
The rich pre-natal mother mirth 
That nourishes thy eggs to birth. 

A hunger cry and mouths of need, 

A parent's tireless toil; 
A ruthless hand, a heart's implead, 

Though weak, defense in broil; 
A hundred lessons for the heart 
Thy actions to the wise impart. 

The smaller fruits we give to thee ; 

The grapes and currants win; 
The larger luscious taste them free 

Though some would call it sin. 
Why should'st thou lack thy frugal meal 
From thy own father's boundless weal? 

The berry man may call a curse 

And guard his juicy wealth; 
The cherry man may rave still worse 

And shoot thee down by stealth. 
Woe ! Woe to us ! Who ? Who could live 
If greater theft none did forgive? 

With all thy sins, thy depth of breast, 

Thy bosom's sinless beat, 
Thy purity and faith and rest 

I would my heart could greet. 
There's naught within the world I see 
Like peace and love and purity. 



60 NATURE SONGS 

For thou and all things like to thee 
Of nature, man and art 

A longing of intensity 

Wakes up within the heart, 

To be and love and live like thee 

In that great heart where all are free. 



SONG OF THE GREEN TREE. 

My evergreen soul of celestial birth 
At the dawn of life descended to earth, 

From the heavens above, where the best is born 
To mantle the earth with a bright adorn. 

There the soul divine that is full of life 

Breathed into me strength for a mortal strife; 

With the greenest hope of an azure birth 
For a place and power I came to the earth. 

A germ with the laws and the rights of life 
I was planted deep in the midst of strife. 

The great from the least they have ever grown 
And round and beneath are the overthrown. 

Then the vital heart of the world soul sent 
Such pulse to my own that my soul unpent, 

And the infant germ sprang swift to the light 
As a life that grows with a spirit's might. 

The passionate powers of that first clime 
Soon nourished the birth to a noble prime; 

Behold ! in the world now I stand with pride 

While all other growths are shamed from my side. 

Both the heavens above and the earth below, 

And all between, with the overflow 
Of a generous heart and exhaustless wealth 

Have poured in me gifts of abounding health. 



NATURE SONGS . 61 

My loom is the darkest and softest kind 

That ever a soul in the earth did bind ; 
Around me it lays with a tender press, 

Protection and warmth of an under dress. 

The green grass above doth carpet me round 
With its velvet touch and its murmuring sound; 

There is always a soft and bright adorn 

Where the roots and knots of strength are born. 

My out-reaching roots with a sacred thirst 
Press into the dark and a way doth burst 

Till the moisture cool and the water's sound 

Both quicken and guide where the life is found. 

Deep rejoicing then at the river's brink 
Her being so crystal my own doth drink; 

I drink to the full of immortal life 

And renew my strengh for the daily strife. 

The tropical breeze with their laden breath 

So vital they quicken the winter's death, 
Their spirit and passion through every pore 

Flows into my heart to the very core. 

The temperate winds with their zonal strength 
Have blown on my breast ; and my breadth and length 

Have expanded rich as the middle clime 
Doth the spirits form of the noblest prime. 

When the Arctic blasts with their fury burst 
I was roused to strength as their spirits versed; 

Like a wrestling giant for many an hour 

I girded my loins and breast with their power. 

The unkindled sun with his vital heat, 
His rainbow spirits and his rythmic beat: 

Is there aught in earth or the heavens above 
So bright as the smile of his morning love ? 

Or deep as the calm of his good-night kiss 
As it falls on my heart with its lingering bliss? 



62 NATURE SONGS 

What a magic strange is the chemic power 
That changeth all ill to his bright endower ? 

He taketh the eartb as a sacred birth 

And feeds her with strength and with azure mirth; 

And out of the earth with his golden might 
He has raised me up in my towering height. 

The radiant beams of his lightning glance 
Shoot into the heart like a vital lance; 

And my spirits rise as a dream doth leap 
Like a breath of life from the land of sleep, 

And spreads its face to the morning sun 
And feels that its course has but just begun. 

When the kingless king has retired to rest 

And the twilight curtains are round his breast, 

The night with the moon and her silver spheres 
Hourly bathe my brow with their dewy tears. 

Their coolness revives as an icy draught 
Which the dying day has rejoiced to quaff; 

Has rejoiced to quaff ere he doth retire 
To his slumber dreams of to-morrow's fire. 

So the dewy night and the icy stars 
From their lucid urns and their crystal jars, 

Pour upon my head their divinest dew 
Till the morning dawns on the seas of blue. 

Oh that azure dome ! Oh that azure dome ! 

That circles me 'round and afar doth roam; 
What a fulness of life doth her silence keep 

For the earth and the stars she enbosoms deep ! 

To but feel that sense round the spirit roll 

Is infinite life in the finite soul. 
Who could live with her in a fresh inspire 

And wish aught else in his best desire? 



NATURE SONGS 63 

There is room, vast room in the azure height, 
Vision, gladness, strength and a keen delight, 

There is victory, song and a mighty glow- 
To souls that to her in their natures grow, 

There is life divine in the azure skies 

That diviner grows as we higher rise; 
Oh ! my only home is that azure dome 

And the earth beneath with its sacred loam. 

I uncrown my head to her liquid light; 

I out-stretch my arms to enfold her might; 
I open my all to her rich bestow; 

As her spirits fall to the height I grow. 

The covetous clouds from the ocean's breast, 

From her scooped trough and her white capped crest, 

From the mountain height and her snowy gleam, 
And the fountain there and her icy stream, 

From the sun-crowned morn with her quick distills, 
And the billowy west with her dewy hills, 

From the Arctic zone and the south more warm, 
The spirit so vital in every form 

They enfold most deep in their fleecy dress 

And circle around as no mind can guess, 
Till the niters pure of the upper air 

Doth embalm the rain as a treasure rare: 

Then the fanning winds to a marching strain 

Blow their shadowy sweep o'er the sea and plain, 

Till they seek me out and at noontide hour 
Long bathe my soul with reviving power. 

Then the circling veins and the tissues dry 
Drink, drink to their full with a thankful sigh; 

As in me it flows with a pulsing pain 
I can hear it sing with a joyful strain. 



64 NATURE SONGS 

Then the rib-like mail that is round my breast 

Feels the strength of life and its joints are pressed 

By resistless force, and the new expand 
Forms another rib with a tighter band. 

Then my knotted roots deeper sink from sight 
And my brow ascends to a higher height. 

My arms reach again farther east and west 
And my branches all are with freshness dressed. 

Then my joyous leaves in their life of bliss, 
Like spirits in love with each other kiss, 

Till my central heart feels a vital glow 
And a greener gladness to each I throw. 

Is another form on the mother's breast 

So sound in heart and with strength so dressed? 

Is another birth of our mother earth 
With a greener hope and more glowing mirth? 

Oh tell to me now sight travelers true 

Who circle the world and her greatness view: 

Is there aught in the earth that was ever born 
Adds more to her pride and her bright adorn ? 



SUMMER. 

Oh ! This is the famous Miss Summer I see, 
Who was mentioned by poets and lovers to me; 
And mentioned in music and passionate praise 
As the vision divine in the midst of our days. 

When hearing thy fame by the hearing of ears, 
Then a vision arose or came down from the spheres; 
But spirit and dream must forever more pine 
For the heart's very presence and eye upon eyne. 



NATURE SONGS 65 

As now unexpected and sudden we meet 

How my heart gives a bound and a double-quick beat ! 

My passions like fire in their ardors arise 

By the kindling sparks that are fed from thy eyes. 

Thou art flesh, blood and bone, but something more rare 

Than the fairest of women did ever yet wear; 

A something that hovers around the ideal 

Which we never can name but we always can feel. 

A beauty embodied, a vision divine 

Are thy physical graces in equipoise fine ; 

Thy cheeks and thy brow and thy eyes and thy lips 

Doth the poet's bright song and the lover's eclipse. 

Thy face is a splendor of golden delight 
Baptized in the sun when the morning was bright ; 
No ! Born in the sun and the spirits of gold 
Were poured in thy frame the divinest of mould. 

Thy brow like a marble is spotless and white, 
Unwrinkled, unblemished and circled with light; 
Adornment for grace or a goddess of art, 
It is infinite more when enthroned on a heart. 

Thy cheeks are as soft and as rich as the wealth 
That has ever yet shined from the fountains of health; 
No pansy, no violet, no lily, no rose, 
Could image or add to thy deep vital glows. 

Thy crimson-fold lips, how they tremble with bliss 
From the spirit of life and her last burning kiss! 
Thy spirit I see at those portals doth yearn 
With a rapture divine for that spirit's return. 

Thy eyes, Oh thy eyes ! Was there ere such a sight 
In the gleam and the glance of the stars of the night ! 
The planet like fires and the lovers' bright eyne 
Are but the stray beams from the brightness of thine. 



66 NATURE SONGS 

But thy spirit ! Thy spirit ! Thy spirit of grace 
Is richer by far than the signs of thy face. 
'Tis only life's strongest and longest that seal 
On the physical frame that resists the ideal. 

Thy love is as golden and full as the sun, 

Through thy heart and thy veins I can see it now run. 

A spirit as rich and as free to impart 

As the sun in the sky is the soul that thou art. 

In love all the virtues in richness abide, 

As beautiful dreams in the flowers of a bride. 

The graces are born and in love ever live, 

And grow as themselves in their giving they give. 

Thou lovest all things be they low or be high, 
From the flowers in the grass to the Soul in the sky. 
Thine is the true love for thy heart's overflow 
Gives the given himself and thyself and thy glow. 

In heart nor in mind has the body of sense 
Wrought in thee its power or its darkness intense; 
Thy spirit divine is dominioned in might 
And its energies rule all the fleshly bedight. 

Was ever a heart with the passions of love 
Not pure as the skies and the spirits above? 
The selfish that hides in the earth's honeyed praise 
Is not in thy motives, thy words or thy ways. 

Ideals sublime that are far out of sight 

Keep pure most the cause of life's blasting and blight. 

Not the salt savored sea nor the blue azure sky 

Is as pure as the heart which now feedeth thine eye. 

Thou art peaceful and calm, soul centered and still, 
Though the chambers of life are at more than their fill. 
Thy multiplied gifts are in balance divine, 
Overflow and at rest in the midst of our pine. 



NATURE SONGS 67 

As gentle and soft and as tenderly kind 
As the sorrows and wounds of the world ever find ; 
The sickness and sin and our mortal disease 
Find a cure in thy hand when no other can ease. 

So patient, compassioned and sympathied deep, 
All high spirit hearts in thy virtues are steeped. 
Domestic, contented and all that endears. 
To the home loving heart 'mid the turbulent years. 

How happy thou art ! All our words of delight 
With their passioned filled souls give no image to sight : 
A maiden with flowers in her hands and her breast 
From winter's wild heart would faint symbol thee best. 

A drunken, delirious and extatic joy 
Soon intelligence, morals and all will destroy; 
But happiness, gladness, rejoicing and song, 
Are sandals and crown and a girdle most strong. 

As flowers in the field or the birds in the sky, 
As the mountain-fed streams or the clouds as they fly, 
As the earth-kissing winds or the innocent heart, 
So glad and much gladder Miss Summer thou art. 

Thy virtues in union or each one alone 
I could sing the whole day with a still rising tone; 
What thou art and what like, what done and will be 
Would be songs to my harp till from hence I shall flee. 

I will tell thee the truth, for the truth ever springs 
Unto such as thou art with the lightest of wings ; 
I'll whisper it now, though I buried it deep 
For in spite of my heart to thy heart it doth leap. 

In far behind days, in the vision of dream, 
Then an image arose with thy summer soul gleam; 
All, all of thy soul in her spirit did shine 
And like thee in form as the eye is to eyne. 



68 NATURE SONGS 

With passion, delight and the rapture of youth 
I pledged her myself at the altar of truth ; 
When waking I said to the phantoms that stream : 
"I will wait till I meet with the soul of my dream." 

While waiting for thee then the storms of the north 
With their night and their winter and fury burst forth; 
As through the long hours as I waited for morn 
I was caught and was driven and beaten and torn. 

I was wounded and scarred and the time-spirit filled 
Till the image divine in my spirit was killed; 
I have been baptized in the earth's bloody gores 
And am now only fit for the service of wars. 

Now a rock hewn image of winter I stand ; 

Though a smile has my face and a flower holds my hand, 

Down deep in my heart is the farthest extremes 

To the soft summer soul that upon me now beams. 

So what I once dreamed I will leave now unsaid 

Though I utter one blessing upon thy fair head : 

In eastern dominions where suns ever shine 

May thy soul meet and wed with the heart that is thine ! 



"My heart with raptures overflow; 

Thy music does impart 
A crown that has a crimson glow 

To both my head and heart. 
Ere each doth on their journey fare 

I'll cast from off my mind 
An image I have treasured there 

That doth the moment blind." 



NATURE SONGS 69 

"When but a little trippling slip, 

As bright as sunny May, 
With April eyes and laughing lip 

I met thee on my way. 
Thy arms of strength with tender might 

Did fold me in thy breast; 
Did fold me deep, deep out of sight 

In love and gladness blest." 

"Then on my ears there fell a song 

That love sings to the heart ; 
The murmurs of thy passion strong 

And echoes ne'er depart. 
I know ! I know by those warm tears, 

Those kisses sweet, divine, 
There's more in thee than winter's years, 

Or summer's heart of wine." 

"Before us yonder shines the sun; 

The morning does invite ; 
Your journeys to the sunrise run, 

Oh come ! for my delight 
Is just to hear thee sing life's songs 

And those that are to be 
When life has triumphed o'er all wrongs 

With love and purity." 



Oh yes I will go. I can walk, run or fly, 
And sing thee the songs that can never more die. 
The hearts that love hearts with no self-seeking pine 
Find others, themselves and the heart most divine. 



70 NATURE SONGS 

NIGHT. 

Oh Night ! Oh Night ! Oh most beloved Night ! 
Presence divine ! Nature of softest power ! 

Being benign above what noonday's height 

In any dream conceives ! Oh spirit with endower 

Of infinite benevolence on our 
Darkened, doubtful immortality ! 

Oh soul of vast and altitudinal tower- 
ing majesty in the wide portality 

Of heaven ! 'Neath thy resplendent bower 

Thou seemest like a living personality, 

Present, near and pure and kind to this mortality. 

What heart or mind wherever on the earth 

Has not looked up into the darkness vast, 
And felt thy spirit of celestial worth 

Around him? An awful sense is cast 
O'er nature, and the elements so massed 

In silence and solemnity creates 
Above the world thy soul of unsurpassed, 

Supremest powers; a soul that dominates 
The starry darkness with divine unclasped 

Compassions; that softly medicates 
The silence, strength and calm thy own heart satiates. 

How could the weary disappointed earth 

Refuse to rest beneath thy blessed feet 
When she herself and all she brings to birth 

Has been but fuel or demon rended meat? 
On her hot heart and pulses burning heat 

Thy hand is placed, and potent spells doth cease 
The torrid storms that through her members beat. 

Oh what a calm ! Oh what a wonderous peace ! 
Oh what divine tranquilities replete 

With heaven's gift! Oh what a rich release 
Upon the weary world with every day's decease ! 



NATURE SONGS 71 

Nature is like a wearied child the nurse 

Cast into slumber. She lies down to rest 
Unmindful of her ancient ancient curse. 

The azure sky is of its power undressed; 
The mountains high diminish on earth's breast; 

The boundless plains unconscious lie asleep ; 
And the mighty sea forever in unrest 

Doth rock the earth like a cradle on the deep. 
Earth, sea and sky, bird, beast and all are blest 

As they decline into the sacred keep. 
Oh what a wonderous sense around the world doth creep ! 

Even the unarticulate creations 

Are not unresponsive to thy presence. 
It often seems thy soft adumbrations 

Wakes another spirit in them. An intense 
Sacredness robes them round, and a sense 

Of longing gazes from their uncomplaining sight. 
Unlanguaged prayer, sacred sorrow and assurance 

In the world's creating and sustaining might 
Grows upon them as the darkness grows more dense. 

'Tis a solemn view from some commanding height 
To watch the sinking world lie down beneath the night. 

Dear ! Dearer far than to the world of sense ! 

Dearer than to the earth's organic things ! 
Beloved, divine, devoted and intense 

Art thou to man, and to the passion springs 
That burst and flow within him. His spirit flings 

Itself with keen delight athwart the day, 
The sense of life within with rapture sings, 

And hope and strength would bear it far away. 
But Alas ! Alas ! The sun consumes ; their wings 

Are shorn; their strength declines; their hopes decay; 
Till soon they fall to earth and for thy presence pray. 



72 NATURE SONGS 

Worn out and sheer exhausted by the strife 

And splendors of the day, the mortal host 
Behold and hail thee as the nurse of life. 

Turning from time's contentious lists, the ghost 
Of what they might have been, they seem almost 

To disrespect the throned and golden sire 
Of all the world. They to thy presence post 

To find life's balm, as unfulfilled desire 
Things such to find on some enchanted coast. 

As the sun does down the western steep retire, 
Thou comest as a nurse with passion's best inspire. 

Even to youth's unvanquishable pride 

Thou art benign, though veiled unto their eyes. 
Youth, hope and strength, who have the world defied 

Soon wears the fierce contentions for life's prize; 
Like some distempered fevered children, their cries 

Thou dost hush down at day's declining hour. 
From nature's unexhaustable supplies 

Both sense and soul thou dost anew empower 
With energies that nobly vitalize. 

Ungrateful both to thee and thy endower 
Thou givest rest and dreams when day doth them devour. 

The great host of toilers, the brawny mass 

Of labor, the sinewy engirded 
Sons of strength, the blinded and unconscious class 

That battle for this unsustaining bread, 
Oh thou art kind beyond what tongue has said ! 

Thou liftest off the burdens from his back, 
And strong protects his low unsheltered head. 

Thou drivest hence the wolves upon his track 
And vulture dreams that hover round his bed. 

Within his home thy evening hours unpack 
Their rich domestic gifts the palaces so lack. 



NATURE SONGS 73 

Still other hosts defeated in the strife, 

Bleeding and faint from greed's foul murdering mart 
Return to thee the only hope of life; 

Thy wines and balsams of celestial art 
Into and round their wounds thou dost impart. 

Life's disappointments, like a mighty train 
Of fugitives stabbed to the very heart 

And staggering in their black and blinded brain 
Thou meetest, and without a price doth bart 

Healing and health. The corpses quick regain 
Themselves and heart and hope that life before had slain. 

Another line smaller but more divine 

Out of the world in silence disappears; 
Sore battle scarred more than the others sign 

They mark their path with crimson crimson tears. 
The sorrows, griefs and anguish of the years 

Forsake the day, and unto thee Oh night ! 
They lift their lamentation, and in thy ears 

Unflood the heart and its unlanguaged blight. 
Not one ! Not one ! but thy compassion hears, 

And folds them in, into thy bosom tight. 
Has thou. Oh night like earth wept blindness on thy sight? 

A few great souls of genius, virtue 

And devotion, a mother find in thee. 
They turn from the noonday's glorious view 

To think and live and fellowship most free 
Thy sacred greatness. Spirit of purity ! 

Parent of the heir that doth arise 
To climb the universe ! these natures be 

The earth's immortal mortals and despise 
All time's achievements to seek society 

With thee. Mother divine unto their eyes, 
Thou art enthroned amid the constellated skies. 



74 NATURE SONGS 

Thou to them all are most compassionate, 

Thou seest them before they turn to thee. 
Most motherlike, thou dost the hour await 

When life and time shall bid them turn and flee 
From that false world where they most blindly see. 

As one by one, or host by host, the race 
Turns from their fierce distempers with a plea 

For any change, they are met in thy embrace 
With the blessings of thy pure maternity. 

Thy benediction and resource of grace 
Is freely opened up and poured upon each face. 

Some portion of what heaven holds for earth 

Is in thy heart and from thy hand divine. 
The atmospheres around thy soul of worth 

Is like a cup of life restoring wine 
Which he who drinks for deeper draughts will pine. 

Thy shadows vast which on this mortal fall 
Subdue the wilder elements and recombine 

Life's dissipated energies. Thou dost call 
Another and a higher soul from the mine 

Of being deep, and a spirit strong and tall 
Answers and walks with thee the starry chambered hall. 

Thou givest gifts that more than life embalms: — 

A truce to war — an interval of rest — 
A valley deep — a season of sweet calms 

When each lies down upon his mother's breast — 
A voice with sweetest nursery songs addressed 

To the worn-out, jaded senses — a hand 
Soft laid upon the burning brain oppressed, 

To charm the thoughts to an enchanted land. 
From thy pure heart, emanations blest 

Enter the soul rebellious and unmanned 
From that exalted state high heaven for them planned. 



NATURE SONGS 75 

Sleep ! Sleep ! The most mysterious gift to earth, 

Life's commonest, yet most profoundest change; 
After our death as it is round our birth, 

And nightly under, when, where or how we range. 
'Tis a celestial anodyne with strange- 

Est therapeutic virtues — an immersion 
Of exhausted body in the fresh grange 

Spirit of the world — a calm reversion 
To being's primal reservoirs, exchange- 

Ing loss for life; and a complete insertion 
In the infinite for to-morrow's high excursion. 

Sleep ! Sleep ! The most supremest gift to earth, 

Great nature's touch for body and for mind; 
Sinking in the deep unconsciousness of birth 

As thou Oh night! doth with thy magic bind. 
Upon that breast so infinitely kind 

Oh mother of this worn humanity ! 
Thou placest each and drawest soft the blind 

Unconsciousness upon his wild insanity. 
Oh where in all the world can mortals find 

A gift like sleep on time's profanity? 
And this most blinded strife and still more blind inanity? 

Upon these restless, restless hours of sleep 

When vanquished and defenseless as a child, 
Thou keepest watch above his slumbers deep 

And wardest off the dangers round him piled. 
Dost thou not sorrow upon him time defiled? 

And on his moaning does not thy hand entwined 
With velvet kindness smooth down his riled 

And blighted spirits? Should a visit blind 
With golden visions be on his eyes beguiled 

And he awake to grasp the promise kind, 
What nature rich but thine such blessing did unbind ? 



76 NATURE SONGS 

But thy greatest ministrations embrace 

The soul so sunk in time's unconscious sleep. 
The mere machine that yokes him to this base 

Of nature, thou nursest but to reap 
A thinking spirit out of the thoughtless heap. 

Thy overshadowing presence, thy speech 
Of silence like thunder, and the magnetic sweep 

Of thy soul over his : when they reach 
The slumberer, he riseth with a leap 

And blank astonishment that doth impeach 
The wisdom of the schools and all the day doth teach. 

Thou art the teacher of the good and wise, 

And makest books and colleges a scorn 
To life; a presumptuous contempt to eyes 

That in time's travailing agonies are born. 
Who walks with thee after the day has torn 

Thou teachest what these pedants never dream; 
And books of lore sublime as is the unworn 

Volumns of eternity open and gleam 
Upon the sight like thy starry deep unshorn. 

From these books and from thine eyes there stream 
An infinity of thought that strength alone can theme. 

From thine eyes, from thy maternal heart 

With infinite penetrations, though between 
The meshes of the worlds something doth start 

With high new-conscious sense. His spirit lean 
Of life, now hungers with desire for the scene 

That being opes before him. Upon the brink 
Of matter thou drawest off the screen 

From the mighty worlds that forever shrink 
From sight by their effulgent brightness. They wean 

Him from himself, and as his soul doth drink 
The vision of the worlds he rises hence to think. 



NATURE SONGS 77 

Thou bringest up this soul to front itself; 

And fronting self it looks straight in the eyes 
Of some far higher Soul who projects his wealth 

Of life in personalities that rise 
In vast proportions. The soul that lies 

In slumber bound thou bringest up to feel 
Its undimensionedness, and strength supplies 

To front the universe. Oh what unseal 
Of passion pure that with expansion flies 

To being's farthest bounds ! The ideal 
Calls and answers man the reverberating peal. 

Thou nursest into the immortal mind 

The ruling concepts of the universe: 
The indestructible, established kind 

For which the worlds are void unless they nurse. 
Thou bringest God and right and law — the curse 

Of sin and holiness, the mighty poles 
That swing creation and the ages verse 

Unto their noblest song. Small circled souls 
Thou liftest from the deep and dark immerse 

Of sense to fellowship the life that rolls 
Through this vast universe unto its distant goals. 

Thou art the mother of divine inspire ! 

The anointing horns are in thy sacred keep 
And free thou art in pouring out their fire. 

Forth from the earth their mighty passions leap 
To walk with thee beneath the blazing deep 

Of heaven. The soul unto its height and reach 
Is drawn out by the visions thou dost heap 

Upon the eyes, the rich poetic speech 
Of lofty conversation and the sweep 

Of mighty thoughts beyond the starry beach, 
Which thou and thine to men in solemn silence teach. 



78 NATURE SONGS 

Oh what a sight for lofty contemplation, 

For intellectual strength, archangel thought, 
Silence, passion, wonder, admiration, 

And all the powers of being overfrought. 
What boundless elements are here together brought 

To mind destroy, and nobler recreate 
To something like the infinite. All nought 

And insignificant is man's estate 
Of genius-ripe conception, when he is caught 

Into the starry heavens to contemplate 
The vast establishments that round him roll in state. 

Oh what a sight for admiration's eyes 

Is high enthroned on everlasting stations ! 
What white intensities within the skies 

Here radiate their lightning scintillations ! 
Oh what majesties of light ! Illuminations 

Of magnificence ! Effulgencies of bright- 
Est spendor and flashing coruscations 

Athwart the answering canopy of night ! 
Oh what radiancies and creations 

Of solar brightness and incandescence white ! 
In firmamental poise on all uplifted sight ! 

Oh thy constellations ! Thy glorious 

Constellations ! Thy constellations bright, 
So supremely poised in their victorious 

Stations on thrones in promenential sight, 
Upon creation's lofty heightless height. 

Thy constellations like world divinities 
Are with such striking majesty bedight, 

They rise among the vast infinities 
That crown the universe with an effulgent light. 

They radiate the high sublimities 
That more than equipoise all spirit magnanimities. 



NATURE SONGS 79 

In high celestial pagentries, the marches 

Of these splendors, these majesties and powers 
O'er the else unpictorial walls and arches 

Is like the world plans marching amid the hours. 
The procession of these glorifying dowers 

Cross the expanse above in their nocturnal 
Progress, these circles round their annual bowers 

Where all burst forth in bright hibernal 
Brilliancy, or pale as summer heat devours, 

These marches of processional pomp supernal, 
'Tis but the universe along its path eternal. 

Oh thy constalations ! Thy glorious 

Constellations ! A noble consanguinity 
And ancient fellowship in victorious 

Exaltation circling the vast infinity 
Of being. Ye in your high sublimity 

Flash recognition to all thy kingly race; 
Or the esemplastic spirit of affinity, 

Flaming through all the hemispheral space, 
Answers each or some enthroned divinity. 

What incandescent eyes and lightning grace 
Each has and flaming throws upon each others face ! 

In yon celestials is the most supremest 

Reach of beauty in nature's plastic arts ; 
A perfect vision of the life that streamest 

Within the deep of her deep heart of hearts. 
The spirit of sublimest beauty starts 

Into being here, and round that virtue high 
Nature cast a fashion that imparts 

Rich overflowing glories on the sky. 
The beautifuls in those celestial charts 

Enchant the strength of life's poetic eye, 
Sustains her passioned heart as they poise and swing and fly. 



80 NATURE SONGS 

Oh thy constellations ! Thy glorious 

Constellations ! established on the height 
Of time and forever more victorious 

Above the gulf. Oh what a vast delight, 
Of purposes and prophecies unite 

To sustain ye on the blank and hungry void 
As the world's best stability ! Thy bright 

Illuminations could seem to be destroyed 
By breath, but this emblazonry of night, 

So blessed, so beatific and enjoyed 
Is more than is the world by firm foundations buoyed. 

What a high sublimity shines there, 

Of mystery, of wonder and of awe ! 
And of these breathless contemplations where 

Time's creations unto their highest draw ! 
The majesty and sovereignty of law ! 

The incarnation of almighty power! 
The transformation from the rude raw 

Elements of chaos into this bower 
Of firmamental splendors ! Life saw 

The garnished heavens and humbled in that hour 
Loves more thy solemn dome than noonday's golden tower. 

Oh thy constellations ! Thy glorious 

Constellations ! in that ideal state 
Designed for them ere their victorious 

Emergence from the dark contentious gate 
Of chaos. Supernity is like a weight 

Of glory on them, and the immortal 
Is burning in their exaltations great. 

In the else black concave they make a courtal 
Majesty and magnificent estate. 

What strength conceives a more emblazoned portal 
Around this travailing earth, around her courses mortal ! 



NATURE SONGS 81 

Yonder the Great Bear prowls around the pole. 

There Cassiopeia and her family reign. 
Here Taurus with his brilliant clusters roll. 

Near Orion's belted strength is a plain 
Triangle of three glorious stars. The strain 

Of the Harp and Aquila's boundless flight 
Behold ! See ! Sagittarius has lain 

His arrow to the Serpent's heart, and sight 
The stars when the Centaur treads disdain. 

The classic symbols dwindle left and right, 
The poles are scant of stars, the center crowded bright. 

Right through these monarchies so bright, the moon, 

An earth-born child adopted by the night, 
Swift circles like a princess of the noon 

Though with some veil upon her face of light. 
That soul of splendor across the bright 

Concave is to the world a warm desire 
And forevermore a passion and delight. 

Oh virgin soul of pure and palest fire ! 
Sail on thy course, and on earth's lifted sight 

Thy smile still rain the magic of inspire, 
And every wax and wane shall make thy presence nigher. 

Oh what a belt is round the whole concave: — 

A girdle bright — a silver flowing stream — 
A milky river but whose path doth pave 

More mighty suns than telescopes can deem. 
What bursting showers of glorious meteors gleam 

Upon the sight and sometimes even daze 
The earth with a long remembered dream. 

See the fierce alien comets lighting the ways 
Of their ellipses, like fiery trains that steam 

Across the startled heavens ; or yonder gaze 
Upon that noonday star that sudden forth doth blaze ! 



82 NATURE SONGS 

What undreamed revelations here ! What surprise 

Of distances and reaches into space ! 
What stretching out of heart and mind and eyes 

To the fixed stars as if our strength could trace 
Infinity! Boundless distances embrace 

Us round in unimagined measures, which scorn 
Time's mathematic and astronomic race 

Of giants. At ninety million miles is born 
The sun ; at two hundred thousand times the base 

The nearest star; at twenty thousand unshorn 
Years of lightning motion the faintest stars forlorn. 

Oh unconquerable and inconceivable 

Reaches of the heavens ! The powers of thought 
Are stunned, staggered, stimulated, full 

Of drunken inspiration when first are taught 
These distances so infinitely frought, 

Beyond all human nature. The awful deep 
And length and breadth and height, Oh! Is there aught 

In the wide universe whose pinions sweep 
The trackless regions which yonder have been wrought? 

See earth-born genius forth impassioned leap ! 
See yonder on the moon that soon exhausted heap ! 

What volumns and inconceivable masses 

Are floating in yon sky? This granite frame 
With mountains, forests, seas, land and all, glasses 

The worlds as a soap bubble in a game 
Of childhood images the thing we name 

The earth. Uranus, icy Neptune, 
Ringed Saturn and Jupiter of belted fame, 

These magnitudes with whom ourselves commune, 
Are mighty globes whose shadows mere might shame 

Our bloated size. Dimensionless the king of noon 
Could hide the solar system in the spots on his illume. 



NATURE SONGS 83 

This thirteen hundred thousand times the earth 

Is but a baby world to some of these 
First seen thousands of years after the birth 

Of light. The eye of the astronomer sees 
Traces of such monster worlds. Enormities 

Of size he knows exists but cannot climb 
By any strength or dreams that fancy please: 

Millions of miled diameters, with prime 
Circumferences broken by the seas, 

Mountains, land and storms and everything to rhyme 
The vast gigantic scales where nature works sublime. 

Omnipotence is but a word elsewhere, 

But here, here are the infinities of power; 
The almighty energies that dare 

From nothingness create this bower 
Of dynamic wonder crowded suns. Our 

Little earth confounds our strength and shakes 
Us into fear by earthquakes that devour 

Our element defying weakness. Who makes 
These stupendous lightning motors that drive the tower 

Of day and night? Omnipotence expiates 
In infinite infinities of suns and planet mates. 

A horse-power ! A horse-power must be multiplied 

A billion times, and then be cast away 
For a solar unit which doth but hide 

The almightiness that round us has its sway. 
These centripitals and centrifugals stay 

The first archangel's visions and confounds 
Man's speech, his dreams and figures of display. 

Nature's reservoiral energies abound 
- Still unexhausted, and fresh creations dismay 

The magnitudes that circle here around 
In constellated march, forever more renowned. 



84 NATURE SONGS 

Equal or past the volumn, power and space, 

Is the expansion of the sense of time. 
How contemptuous the periods of our race 

Unto the age that with the world doth rhyme ! 
These astronomic ages ! How sublime 

The mighty roll of these celestial spheres 
Whose million years upon each other climb 

As waves climb up the murmuring shores ! The years 
Before the moon, the earth, the planets prime, 

As rending thunders strike upon the ears, 
Pause as with solemn awe and shadow us with fears. 

How old is the golden vestured king of noon? 

How vain the symbols in the answer told ! 
Figures are as empty as a gauze festoon 

Which on the moon a summer breath has rolled. 
Twenty million years is estimate not bold, 

And even this some multiply a score ; 
But this or that what spirit can it hold? 

Our sun is young; others have vastly more 
Of age upon them. Most solemnizing old 

These flickering stars upon night's purple floor ! 
Almost to everlasting our spirits onward soar. 

Thus we are lifted above life and time. 

A mighty spirit sweeps us o'er the earth, 
Over time's changes, over nature's prime, 

And past the hour of her sunlike glorious birth. 
Intensities of awe and noblest mirth 

Bear us on to the distant fire creations 
Of nebulosities of extended girth. 

Incarnate in the very condensations 
We slowly live up to the present worth, 

Through the times, process and differentiations 
That builds the universe up to its glorious stations. 



NATURE SONGS 85 

We are bound along the mighty evolutions 

From heterogeneous elements most raw, 
And see the growth of nature's institutions, 

Matter, biologies, intelligence and awe. 
The reach and sweep of everlasting law 

Inspire and light imagination's eyes 
To see worlds born, and then sink in the maw 

Of what might seem annihilation. They rise 
Through geologic dynasties, though they draw 

Some of the past entail ; but promise cries 
A still diviner course along the azure skies. 

Still onward we are bound by flight benign 

Though earthquake shocks of conflict round us ring, 
As the higher powers with victory divine 

Sloughs off the old that doth around it cling. 
The earth decays ; a burnt out cinder the king 

Of noon desolves to nought, and another mass 
With potentialities more rich doth spring 

Into its place. The constellations pass 
Like panoramic scenes, and others fling 

A brighter splendor and another glory glass 
Of something more sublime as these the earth surpass. 

Changes to higher transformation is the line 

By which the universe doth upward wing. 
There must be ideals more splendid and divine 

Than those who lift unto this height did bring. 
Ends of vast, vaster majesty must king 

The long ascension, for on each higher plane 
Eonic and celestial song doth fling 

Eclipsing visions on the heart and brain. 
What can exhaust the Infinite? This thing 

Of earth? or his dreams of selfish gain? 
A million years of growth or heaven's heightless reign? 



86 NATURE SONGS 

We are lost amid the future contemplations 

And find ourselves within the distant age, 
After vast change, amid the new creations 

The prophet scarce dare tell unto his page. 
The unaccustomed passions so engage 

This frail humanity that we are worn 
With the divine intensity of rage. 

We calm descend yet feel we are upborne 
To other thoughts that fit our present stage ; 

But night lifts up, and spirit strength unshorn 
Sees starry visions blest the morning sun might scorn. 

The dumb, unconscious beast beholds thee not, 

And multitudes of more unconscious men 
Storm o'er the earth with blindest fevers hot, 

And through their course of three score years and ten 
Not once, so much as once lift up the ken 

To view thy flaming glories. But if the sight 
Falls on the heart the universe again 

Brings forth the heir. A new cosmopolite 
Emerges from the beasts amid the fen; 

Emerges with his face unto the height, 
Receives and back reflects the splendors of the light. 

There is no mechanician in the world 

But looks with vast astonishment on high. 
The huge machine by huger forces whirled 

Intoxicates the true machinist's eye. 
The revolutions along the azure sky 

Of circles and ellipses, the rotation 
Directed and reverse of masses as they fly 

Undeviating orbits, the inclination 
Of the axes to the plane and the perfect ply 

Of every cog throughout the wide creation 
Is a mechanic's joy and lasting contemplation. 



NATURE SONGS 87 

Physical scientists and philosophers 

Of mind, men of the noblest sweep and height 
Of thought, teachers whose intelligence transfers 

The world from plane to plane, with rich delight, 
Most solemn awe, and inspirations white, 

Oft contemplate this galaxy of splendors, 
These processional majesties, these bright 

Prodigalities of power and sunlike spenders 
Of infinite generosity. The height 

Of passion this vision to earth tenders 
Gives victory over time and space asunder renders. 

But most of all, Oh most of all ! the saints 

Have loved thee Night and thy exalted bowers, 
So uncontaminated by the taints 

Of life and time and all that man devours. 
The Infinite and the Eternal powers 

Of purity with thee hold habitation, 
And from thy starry elevations their showers 

Drench the spirit, till they become incarnations 
Of his character. Thy solemn hours 

Are sacred to his Spirit's ministrations, 
Baptisms in his life and moral exaltations. 

This plan forever shames all architectural 

Genius. It dwindles this planet of the sun 
To a mere vestibule for intellectual 

Being. The architectonic builders run 
The temple like construction as to stun 

All heaven's visions. A vast sublimity 
Arches our entrance to creation 

And ushers us to a high infinity 
Of solar systems. The universe has won, 

Adopts us, and within a new divinity 
Awakes and finds and claims kindred and affinity. 



88 NATURE SONGS 

Oh what a spacious, all-sustaining base 

Is this vast culminating universe 
For a rich and multitudinous race 

Of intellect and morals ! Oh who could nurse 
The thought that moral beings never verse 

The worlds out of impeachment to intelligence 
Vast, vast beyond our own ! Is this disburse 

Of mighty worlds a spectacular pretense 
And empty vanity ? On this atom what unpurse 

Of vastest elements? More noble and intense 
Must be and rule the spheres of such magnificence. 

There must be others ! Hierarchal reigns 

Of love and purity, of triumphant power 
And beauty must exist in those domains 

Of starry splendor. The immortals tower 
Yonder in their strength and golden dower; 

The ripe perfections within the prophet's sense 
Flower from within and round them. No sins devour 

Nor light upon them, nor any of the dense 
And blind idolatries of earth. There shower 

The infinite eternal hearts intense 
And all the generations go singing soaring hence. 

Somewhere amid these starry spheres, Oh night ! 

Or in the void of unmaterial space 
The Infinite and the Eternal Right 

Builds up the world from whence his chosen race 
Doth rule the universe. Is not the place 

Most inconceivable in magnificence 
When its dependencies and physical base 

Is on the scale of such omnipotence 
And fronts us with this transcendental grace ! 

World ! World supreme ! Our spirit passions tense, 
Are looking up to thee and crowding forward hence. 



NATURE SONGS 89 

Oh astronomy ! Astronomy ! 

Thou art the queen of sciences. The universe 
Is thy boundless empire and eternity 

Thy throne of majesty where thou dost unpurse 
Power and life's exhaustless fulness, and disburse 

Thy blessings unto the wide creation. 
The worlds thou liftest from chaotic curse 

And round thy everlasting station 
Spiritlike they congregate. They glorious verse 

Thy presence, splendor and exaltation 
Which round the heavens casts sublimest fascination. 

Thou art the mother of intellectual 

Being. Thou bringest forth the passioned hour 
Of intensities in man, and time's usurping spell 

Destroyest in his heart. Thou art the power 
Whose expansion recreates with vast endower 

These faculties, and communicates to soul 
The transcendental elements that tower 

On high. The mighty amplitudes that roll 
Through thy uncircled spirit becomes our 

Temperamental quality, and to the whole 
Created universe thou dost our spirits pole. 

Oh mother of this heaven soaring mind ! 

Oh mother of this godlike breasted heart ! 
Oh parent of divine begotten kind 

Which thee and thine within our beings start! 
What creations to a shining chart 

Sublimer than the worlds ! What intensities 
Of passion which thy spirits free impart ! 

What expansion beyond the cumberous densities 
Of earth ! and what idealisms dart 

Upon us changing time's propensities, 
As we are face to face with thee and thy immensities ! 



90 NATURE SONGS 

Oh imperial passioned mother of the great! 

What mean these strange experiences of time? 
Why are we led to bound this incommensurate 

Creation? Why are we forced to the prime 
Battle of being and with the elements sublime 

Contend until the mastery we gain? 
Why thus impelled these awful heights to climb? 

And inspired to understand the strain 
The systems round, forever on us chime? 

Why conflict, conquest, triumph and a plane 
Where these mechanics vast go circling in the brain? 

What means this most memorial sacrament 
To life's intelligence? and the significance 

Of this baptism into the element- 
Al powers of being? What means this inductance 

To the vast estates that base the super-sense 
Abilities? and this domestication 

Of a child of time in the wide immens- 
ities of uncircumscribed creation? 

What means this capacity of imminence 
And transcendency o'er matter and mutation 
By the earth-born, mortal and prisoner to his station? 

Does it not mean there is a living breath 

And being shaped upon the infinite? 
Something unkindred to space and time and death, 

And in its element upon the summit 
Of creation, drinking in most passionate 

The splendors of intelligence and power 
And life and beauty that forever flit 

Across its bosom. Is not the glorious hour 
Out of the deep and from the heights of spirit? 

Does it not prophet-like announce our 
Certain immortality as fruit foretells the flower? 



NATURE SONGS 91 

Can this being of intensest consciousness? 

Of length and breadth and height and depth and sweep 
Beyond all limits that upon us press, 

Return again into its native deep 
Of nothingness ! Can the heart and mind that keep 

The universe within its compass drink 
Annihilation? Will it not rather leap 

When it doth come to nature's awful brink, 
To freedom, power and glory on the steep 

Of heaven? How impossible to think 
Creation's crown of life in death can ever sink ! 



Oh Nature, Night and astronomic Soul ! 

Oh infinite and most eternal Power 
That through mankind and all creations roll, 

The fullness that thy being doth endower! 
Is not this where ye bring the narrow hour 

Of our mortality to deep baptize 
It in eternity? whose spirit doth devour 

The bondage sense that on the mortal lies. 
Another consciousness comes up to tower 

Commandingly upon the azure skies, 
And round the starry spans cast her imperial eyes. 

Oh Night! Oh Night! Oh most beloved Night! 

Mother and nurse of being's powers divine ! 
Oh cast thy spells of starry magic might 

Upon our minds and still more make them thine! 
Under thy constellations, Oh pour the wine 

Of living thought upon this thirsty mortal 
And fellowship our low, unworthy line ! 

Oh lead us through each starry flaming portal 
And lift us to the height of thy design ! 

Oh clothe us with thy character so courtal 
And like thy splendors bright, Oh march us on immortal 



92 NATURE SONGS 

Oh Night ! Oh Night ! Oh most beloved Night ! 

Mother and nurse and prophet of the child 
Designed to rise to being's awful height 

Upon this base thou hast so glorious piled. 
Oh Magnanimous ! Majestic ! Undented ! 

The solitude and silence is delight 
In thy society, and man so time beguiled 

Becomes with thee the true cosmopolite 
In the universe that has upon him smiled. 

Few ! Few are dearer than thou unto our sight ! 
Oh most beloved Night ! Oh most beloved Night ! 



THE BRIDE OF THE SUN. 



Oh hail bright maiden ! Hail ! 

From thy mortal swoon 
What spirit rent the veil? 

What life restored the boon? 
And sent thy queenly soul to seek thy lover noon? 

Who nursed thee from the trance? 

Who broke the shadowed spell 
That in the hour of dance 
Upon thy being fell? 
Who brought thee to the light where starry splendors 
dwell? 

Oh hail bright maiden ! Hail ! 

What life reviving dream 
O'er thy brain did sail, 

Upon thy heart did stream, 
That from thy liquid rest thy soul it should redeem? 



NATURE SONGS 93 

Hast thy mother earth, 

The mother most divine, 
Brought thee again to birth 

And will the infant shine 
That glowed upon thy face upon that morn benign? 

In thy soul's eclipse, 

Did thy death beguile 
Thy lover to thy lips 

There to rest awhile? 
And did his burning kiss awake this rapture smile? 

Or hast thou been above 
In thy bower so bright 
To gaze upon thy love 
Across the cone of night? 
And is this smiling life his answering delight? 

In the evening's hush 

What breath of love or wine, 
Upon thy cheeks do flush? 

And from thy heart divine 
Like some celestial fire doth through thy being shine? 

Has now some spirit blest 

With flowers of sweet perfume 
Just placed upon thy breast 

Boquet of rarest bloom? 
And whispered in thy ear some story of thy groom ? 

Perhaps delightful music 

The echoes of the spheres, 
Doth strike thee to the quick; 
Is raining on thy ears 
Sweet fancies, thoughts and dreams of swiftly-coming 
years. 



94 NATURE SONGS 

Perhaps love's intensity, 

High as starry height, 
Deep as is the sea, 

Warm as summer night, 
Pure as whitest fire, circles thee like light. 

But why art thou so cold 

That thou dost fly apace 
From hearts that do unfold 

The fullness of their grace? 
And ask but in return a smile of thy bright face? 

The dancing spirits gay 

Who love thee, in the wood 
Have left their fairy play 

And near the edge have stood 
Have turned from watching thee to hide in solitude. 

A maiden like to thee 

A pure and fragile cloud, 
Who came up from the sea 
In her soft silver shroud 
Has gone away to weep, heart-broke by thee so proud. 

Thy sisters in the sea 

In face and form and light, 
Twin spirits like to thee, 

Are trembling through the night 
With hope that thou wilt turn and feed this longing sight. 

Stars and planets pale 

For thy love do pine ; 
Their sweet lights do fail 

For their eyes divine 
Are wearied with the watch they ever keep on thine. 



NATURE SONGS 95 

Thy presence bright awakes 

Dreams in the meteor's trance, 
So glad her sleep she shakes 

In her swift shining dance, 
Whose joyous love for thee now kills thy scornful glance. - 

Like the very queen 

Of heaven's starry height 
Crowned in golden sheen, 

Clad in robes of light, 
Thou ridest past the earth and all that lifts the sight. 

Thy faith has no doubt 

That might make thee miss, 
His love which streams out 

Like a celestial kiss 
To rest upon thy heart, prophetic of thy bliss. 

The sense of what thou art, 

Oh beautiful to sight! 
The passion in thy heart, 

Oh Empress of the night! 
Is burning for the hour thy spirits will unite. 

That best and bridal day 
Must be drawing near, 
That such resplendent ray 

Through the night's dark sphere 
Should pour such floods of light so gentle, soft and clear. 

Thy overflowing joy 

Shoots down a piercing dart 
On youth and maiden coy, 

Till thy celestial art 
Has nourished into life the best within the heart. 



96 NATURE SONGS 

Under thy soft rain 

Hearts are growing strong, 
And strength at last they gain 
To tell what is not wrong, 
Those sacred thoughts the sweetest, each has wished for 
long. 

Beneath thy magic spell 

The magic word is found; 
Two fountain spirits well; 
Two hearts in one are bound 
And thou has seen and heard, and them with gladness 
crowned. 

Through the window light 

Thou on the sleepers stream; 
Thy rays of magic might 

Within their beings teem; 
A bridegroom and a bride, a dream within a dream. 

But Oh that passing cloud 

Upon thy breast and face ! 
That wraps thee like a shroud 
As round a mortal race, 
To disappoint the hope that life and love embrace. 

Like ours Oh radiant maid ! 

Hast thy love a moan? 
Art thou e'er afraid 

Lest the earth's dark cone, 
Like death will come between, and leave thee all alone? 

Fear not ! He an urn has filled 

With precious golden dew, 
That has been distilled 

From his dome of blue 
To sprinkle on thy heart and thy young life renew. 



NATURE SONGS 97 

He will send thee now 

Fleecy sandals rare; 
Stars to gem thy brow; 

Veils of misty air; 
And rainbow ribbon bands to bind thy streaming hair, 

His chariot of the wind, 

His steeds of swiftest time, 
Along the zodiac signed 
With images sublime, 
Bear thee all heaven's queen while starry echoes chime. 

Oh snowy breasted maid ! 
Oh spirit vainly sought ! 
Though sin and sorrow weighed, 
On earth may not be bought 
That purity of thine which in thy face is wrought. 

Farewell chast bride ! Farewell ! 

May joy attend thy flight ! 
My heart songs ne'er can tell 
Its wish for thy delight 
When thou hast joined thy love in the bowers of morn- 
ing bright. 



HOME SONGS 



A MOTHER'S DREAM SONG. 



Oh mother, mother broken hearted! 

Heaving bosom ! Sobbing breast ! 
Heart from heart the dearest parted, 

Better than thine own and best! 
Weep mother weep ! Flow fountain flow ! 
Tears heal our grief and make us grow. 

Weep! Oh weep! Oh broken-hearted! 

Thy fresh grief Oh now unbind ! 
Grief is deadly if unparted 

To the rain and night and wind. 
In lonely, raven-darkness weep 
Till slumber seals thy soul with sleep. 

Sweet thy dreams on thorny pillow ! 

Angel faces griefs beguile; 
From beyond the glassy billow 

On thy heart they brightly smile. 
And sing on wounded heart and brain 
A dream to soothe thy surging pain. 

"Spirit, her whom thou bewailest, 
Soul of mingled love and light, 

Softest, dearest, purest, frailest, 
Do not weep her mortal flight! 

A seraph bright as golden morn 

Did visit earth when she was born." 

LOfC. 



100 HOME SONGS 

"From the heart of hearts divinest 
Bore to thee his choicest gift; 

A heart, which as it soft untwinest 
From the earth thy own did lift, 

And showed to thee Oh wand'ring heart ! 

He is as to thy babe thou art." 

"Through sunny noon and starry night, 
While thy babe slept in thy breast, 

Round thee and thine this seraph bright 
Stood and did no mind has guessed. 

The fervent fountains of love's heart 

In thine from hers did often start." 

"Did thy cradle-angel sicken 
And her light of life grow pale? 

Seraph love and care did quicken 
More than thine o'er her the frail. 

When broken was the golden bowl 

Her pure and lily-crystal soul" 

"With more than tenderest mother love 
Clasped she in her panting breast; 

Then through the cone of night above 
Clove she death though storm oppressed, 

And oft she looked upon that face 

Such looks as none have seen for grace." 

"Arrived at heaven's jasper gates 
With thy dear now dearer birth, 

Her bright and burning fervent mates 
Ask to see this soul of earth. 

They gaze and smile and speak divine 

And utter prayer for thee and thine." 

"Up golden streets on toward the throne, 
Where the Father's face of light 

Forever smiles upon his own 
With a world of sweet delight; 

On toward this face and burning breast 

This seraph with thy babe has pressed." 



HOME SONGS 101 

"Those Father arms of love divine, 

Tender more than tenderest, 
With eyes no mother love can sign, 

Folds thy babe into his breast. 
He folds her in as his own birth 
And dearer for her stay on earth. 

"In his heart of hearts divinest, 

Under grace and love and light, 
While swift time her course untwinest 

Groweth up thy baby bright; 
Thy warmest thought and tenderest care 
As winter frosts with his compare." 

"Oh mother then no longer pine; 

She is his more than thine own; 
Since in his breast and he divine 

Hush thy broken-hearted moan. 
Still trust, Oh trust the heart above ! 
His act, his thought, his name is love." 

"While sorrow bows thee in the dust 

Harken to this golden chime ! 
Thy babe in his warm bosom trust; 

By it thou shalt upward climb, 
And find thy child, thyself and him, 
And worlds of life no death can dim." 



CHILDREN'S BED-SONG. 



The hour is come when I must sleep, 
So I would sing Thy love; 

Upon the notes of evening's song 
Would wing my prayer above. 



102 HOME SONGS 

I love, I love Thee dearest Lord 

For giving me mama; 
And just as much my heart would love 

For such a dear papa. 

They feed and clothe me, care and love; 

Their hearts encircle mine; 
I love thee for they say their hearts 

Are filled with love from Thine. 

My mama often to me speaks 

Of sins and Calvary; 
And shows Thy cross of shame and death 

As Thine own love to me. 

Now Jesus dear as mama does 
When I my wrongs confess, 

Kiss Thou my sins from off my mind 
And with Thy love me bless. 

My papa oft kneels down beside 

My cradle as I sleep, 
And prays that Thou his little lamb 

Will guide and save and keep. 

If he should come and kneel to-night 
Oh hear my papa's prayer ! 

Were I awake these words of his, 
To Thee my heart would bear. 

My prayer is sung to Thee dear Lord. 

Soon sleep mine eyes will close; 
Send down with sleep my angel guard 

To watch my night's repose. 



HOME SONGS 103 

INFLUENCE OF BABY. 



I've studied my dear baby girl 

Since heaven gave her to me; 
When gazes her blue eyes in mine 

Her little heart I see. 
I've watched her many an evening hour 

From play till bed time still, 
Yet never in her crystal soul 

Could see a trace of ill. 

When e'er I hold my little girl 

Close up against my heart 
Fountains of warm and sweetest life 

Within my soul do start. 
In rapturous joy and tenderness 

I draw her closer still; 
There's nought like her upon my breast 

In this wide world of ill. 

My tears oft bathe her lilly brow 

When sleeping on my heart, 
Since then I feel from her pure soul 

To mine she does impart 
A sense of woeful change and loss, 

Of evil, guilt and shame, 
As I have soiled the spotless robes 

In which I hither came. 

Oh could I be as baby dear! 

Pure as the driven snow, 
All that I have and am to-day 

I gladly would forego. 
I'd pass through seas of cleansing fire 

If I might reach the shore 
Which baby's feet are treading now 

And I have trod of yore. 



104 HOME SONGS 

Father ! Led by my little girl 

I turn and sin I flee; 
Oh make me as in years ago 

When first I came from Thee ! 
Oh shed Thy love within my soul, 

That cleansing fire divine ! 
Till in my heart again I am 

Pure as this child of Thine. 



FAT MEDICINE. 

Tom has a little girl as frail 

And fragile as a cloud, 
What time they through the azure sail 

As spotless as a shroud. 
Her mortal frame could hardly claim 

A spirit mould to be; 
More like a dream for soul doth seem 

So bodiless and free. 

She weakness is and tenderness, 

Just pallid flesh and bone; 
A lily-flower of slenderness 

By child play overthrown. 
Oft ailing, sick and feeling pain, 

And always weak and lean; 
Her mortal race to woman's grace 

In doubt is often seen. 

The doctor feeds her appetite 

With medicines for fat; 
But they have failed when best applied 

As worthless this as that. 
So, as often as she comes to me, 

Or I to see her pine 
I go and see and give her free 

Some medicine of mine. 



HOME SONGS 105 

I fold her in my bosom deep; 

My kisses on her dart; 
And with the kiss there is a leap 

Of something to her heart. 
I kiss her o'er and o'er and o'er; 

With every kiss there goes 
A portion of the crimson store 

With which love overflows. 



The pennies, toys and candies sweet 

Are sandwiched in with kisses; 
And when our hearts together beat 

There is a glow of blisses. 
"Oh honey! this will make you fat; 

This medicine is fine; 
Just feed the doctor's to the cat 

But take a lot of mine." 



So by the medicine we all 

Unto her freely give, 
Just like a flower beside the wall 

She gathers strength to live. 
And as to girlhood up she grows 

She slowly leaves behind 
The sickness, pain and mortal foes 

That round her cradle twined. 



Oh Lovers ! Lovers ! Lovers glad ! 

No need to tell to you, 
This medicine has ever had 

A heart of crimson hue. 
Ye both have found what doctors miss 

And wise men often scorn : 
That love is life and in a kiss 

Life's strength is often born. 



106 HOME SONGS 

Oh husband bare, behold her there ! 

Is she not growing lean, 
Who once was young and fresh and fair 

As eyes have ever seen? 
Oh use this medicine of mine ! 

I'll wager you a hat 
That she again will grow divine, 

And you grow green and fat. 

Of wisdom, age and hoary time ! 

'Tis life and love and joy 
Which kisses sweet but sets to rhyme 

That saves us from destroy. 
Your sorrow, greed and hate and scorn, 

No strength can ever give 
They never kiss and always miss 

The strength by which we live. 

Oh children, maidens, men and all 

Let us forever love ! 
Then heaven itself will either fall 

Or we rise up above. 
Oh Love ! Oh Love that never dies ! 

Oh Love that overflows ! 
Within our bosoms gently rise 

And feed these infant glows. 



THE REJECTED'S FAITH. 

There's just as good fish in the sea 

As ever yet were taken; 
There's just as sweet fruit on the tree 

As ever down was shaken; 
There's brighter seraphs in the sky 

Than mortals have beholden; 
There's dearer maidens by and by; 

So wait the season golden. 



HOME SONGS 107 

A LOVER'S SONG. 



The maiden of my summer dreams 

I met one happy morn, 
When suns of love were pouring streams 

And golden joys were born. 
A nature from the azure skies, 

A rainbow purity; 
The spirit in her liquid eyes 

Soft beamed and smiled on me. 

That smile it filled me with delight 

And fed my heart for days; 
I wished but just another sight 

That on my vision plays. 
We met and Oh her voice divine 

Was music to my ear ! 
Her words and their sweet soul enshrine 

Echoed as from a sphere. 

Again we met, and her soft hand 

Was friendshipped in my own; 
I felt some magic spirit band 

Their influence round had thrown. 
It thrilled my spirit to the deep; 

It crimsoned cheek and brow; 
It woke a thousand thoughts from sleep 

And vowed the sacred vow. 

Still deeper, deeper in my heart 

This angel came with bliss; 
I gave my best immortal part, 

Betrothed her with a kiss. 
I throned her on my spirit's throne, 

And crowned her with my joy; 
So finding hope before unknown, 

Strength, truth and high employ. 



108 HOME SONGS 

When pass again the winter's gloom 

And yonder azures smile, 
When birds will sing and flowers will bloom 

I'll lead her up the aisle 
When youth and maidens gladness bring 

And envy me or pine, 
My heart with raptures new will sing 

"Mine ! Mine ! Forever mine !" 

Upon these earthly golden heights 

Still more and more my own ! 
When yonder 'mid the starry lights 

Still mine and mine alone ! 
Through life and loss and pain and tears 

Love grows though all decline; 
Somewhere amid the golden spheres 

"Mine ! Mine ! Forever mine !" 



A WOMAN'S WAY. 

"Oh dear, this daily round I hate ! 

The same old things, the same ! 
Oh for a change by any fate ! 

I'd even change my name !" 

"All right !" the youth replied, "I'll change, 

And change it into mine. 
Oh come ! Together let us range 

And feed this hungry pine." 

"You ! You ! Oh such a thing as you ! 

Such a rag, a scrap, a patch ! 
The last man on the earth would do 

Before with you I'd match." 

Later we passed a cottage neat; 

A singing soul espied. 
"Who is that happy heart we greet?" 

"Oh! That's Miss B. the bride." 



HOME SONGS 109 



THE ANNIVERSARY. 



What ! To-night the return of the night that was brightest 
Through years of thy youth and the hopes of thy heart ; 

When love crowned in blossoms and robed in the whitest 
Her soul and its trust in thy own did impart. 

Are the bright forms of memory enchanting and streaming 
Now thawing thy heart and inspiring thy mind? 

May the hopes and the joys and the sweetness and dreaming 
Flow down on thy soul till thy tears do unbind. 

Behold in yon window are bunches of roses 
For beauty and music and praise and delight; 

But hers the divinest that toward thee ne'er closes 
Has not worn thy rose since that long bridal night. 

Then pick out the whitest or those that are turning 
To faintest fine yellow and sprinkled with dew, 

Or some with red tingeing as if a heart burning 
With love that was crimson would waken thine new. 

On branches the greenest now bear home thy roses; 

Her bosom will lend them a beauty most rare; 
When flowers of a heart on another reposes 

They blossom and fragrance as no other where. 

Oh what is this warming and melting and flowing 
That circles thy heart like a draught of sweet wine? 

If dreams of our past have such sweetness and glowing 
Oh what would love have if it knew no decline? 

See ! She waits at the window. Is she the same maiden 
That day filled thy mind and high swelled it with pride ? 

The warm heart and loving can see a soul laden 

If but with a thought and though smiles it would hide. 



110 HOME SONGS 

She catches the brightness and soft liquid gleaming 
That love in the heart flings out through the eyes. 

Its lightning contagion has waked the old dreaming 
When every return brought her sweeter surprise. 

Now bring out the roses ; the roses whose passion 
Has wide channels been for deep feeling most blest; 

With manner and motion in true lover fashion 

Pin them on her heart and her deep heaving breast. 

Sit down by the fender before the coal burning; 

Draw her to thy side and deep into thy heart, 
As a lover long distant and now in returning 

His loved one enclasps as no more to depart. 

Free murmur thy heart, for the heart's deep emotion 
Can find the sweet thoughts and the still sweeter tones; 

'Twill be life to her heart to unseal the devotion 
That deep in thy spirit her spirit enthrones. 

Tell how the heart fountains afresh have been broken 
That love from its pledges of truth should decline. 

That time should engross thee to give no new token 
Of her that is dearer than all undivine. 

Ask first to forgive for the heart's hidden sorrow 
Of love's unexpected and partial eclipse; 

As each summer sun is surpassed by the morrow 

Thy heart should grow warmer and flow from thy lips. 

Thy silence and coldness in coming and going 

Have cast on her heart, doubt, fear, strife and pain ; 

But just drop a tear and her heart's overflowing 
Forgives and rejoices and calls loss a gain. 

Tell how in thy heart is a mansion most golden, 

With deep granite base and with high splendored dome; 

And blessings and beauties no mortals beholden 
Are centered and queened in who makes it a home. 



HOME SONGS 111 

Tell how thy deep passions oft round her are flowing 
With foaming and sparkling and murmuring joy; 

While populous thought's winged, mounting and glowing 
Look up in her face in thy deepest employ. 

She should know that her image oft round thee is winging 
In street and in hall and in gain's busy mart, 

With sweetness and shining and gladness and singing 
To the something divine that dwells deep in thy heart. 

Oh has not that image upon thee cast beauty ! 

And led out thy mind to the splendors of light! 
Oh has it not throned and enmajestied duty 

Supreme and sublime on the dazzling height ! 

Has it not stemmed the currents that round thee were sweeping 
Of darkness and power and incitements to crime? 

Hast thou not felt its strong but mysterious keeping 
And passed the dark flood to a safe sunny clime? 

Has not her white presence with power afar banished 
The dark forms of sense that arose on thy mind? 

And sanctified manhood when these had all vanished 
Have virtues beheld of the high heaven's kind. 

Has it not made thee thoughtful and patient and gentle ! 

Has it not taught thee kindness to man and to beast ! 
Has it no visions brought thee of God the parental 

Who mothers all souls from the first to the least ! 

Thy heart's alabaster again be unbroken; 

Its fragrance and sweetness and healing be poured 
With tones and sweet touch and with heart prompted token, 

In hers who all sweetness in thine has instored. 

Oh tell it out free ! for the speech will unburden 
The tensions of fear and the doubtings of love; 

Such weakness is strength and thy spirit will girden 
With powers that descend to thy soul from above. 



112 HOME SONGS 

Her heart into thine will afresh pour its treasure, 
The divine soul in both will burst forth like a fount, 

From the height it descends will be the vast measure 
To which on its bosom both spirits will mount. 

Then, 

Oft pick out the roses when home thou art turning 

The roses of beauty and odor divine; 
Pin them on her heart and both hearts anew burning 

Will know what love has when it knows no decline. 



THE NEW ADVICE. 

"If you would keep your husband's love 

And find the fruitful root 
Of virtues all, below, above, 

Then feed, just feed the brute." 

"If you would have a wife divine, 

A heavenly kingdom rule, 
The all for which man's heart can pine, 

Then dress, just dress the fool." 



WOMAN. 

A little flash, 
A little dash, 
A little cash, 
And most of women go in smash. 



HOME SONGS 113 

THE BEST BABY. 

Oh what a sweet celestial birth ! 

Oh what a babe divine ! 
Oh what a lovers' blossomed mirth 

Filling their hearts with wine ! 
Such holy face and light within 

Outbursting in a smile; 
And brow with purity from sin 

Or faintest trace of guile; 
Such eyes of soft divinest power 

For God is in their gaze ; 
And lips more dear and sweet, than flower 

Or music-song can praise; 
Such pansy- velvet flushing cheek; 

Soft hands and dimpled chin; 
Oh ye for joy no more may seek 

For all joy here ye win ! 
On afternoons in summer hours 

My heart knows where to stray, 
I see the nurses with love's flowers 

Light up life's shadowed way. 
Though gazing in each baby face 

I took each part divine, 
United them with perfect grace 

It ne'er could match with thine. 
In dreams I've seen a baby bright 

And called it, "Mine ! Oh mine !" 
As dreams fly far when hope takes flight 

The baby best is thine. 

"Oh Mr. Nimmo ! My young heart 

Leaps up with rainbow light; 
From each sweet golden drop, doth start 

New joys toward heaven bright. 
Within my soul angels are singing 

Almost delirious mirth; 



114 HOME SONGS 

Such echoes dear around me ringing 

Drowns deep the noise of earth. 
I knew your words would greet my song; 

The pure unselfish youth 
By instinct high is far from wrong 

And utters only truth, 
I sing to friends, husband and brother, 

'This is the world's best birth, 
And may around be seen no other 

Of such beauty, joy and worth,' 
'Tis so; no cloud my heart can doubt; 

With other babes set mine, 
And every eye will single out 

A babe as bright as thine. 
But hold ! Have I not heard you sing 

With baby in your breast, 
And as you soared on joyous wing 

Oft echoed back: 'Best! Best!' 
When your own Tom and sister Mary 

Returned home to be blessed, 
The elfish boy and curly fairy 

You praised and called each best. 
Of every babe you say the same; 

Oh ! May not your heart of youth 
Be shadowed by a mother's blame; 

Now tell the honest truth." 



Calm, calm thy jealous heart my child ! 

Let love be large, divine ! 
A mother's heart I ne'er beguiled, 

The baby best is thine. 
For babies are like springtime's birth, 

Or golden summer light; 
Or those ripe joys of autumn's mirth, 

Or winter's starry night; 
Like clouds of richest sunset ray, 

Or rainbows round the storm; 



HOME SONGS 115 

Or plumed throats' enraptured lay, 

Or flowers with hearts most warm; 
Like silver moons in limped lakes, 

Or music round the sea; 
Or light from maiden brow that breaks, 

Or stories of the free; 
Like beauty in her flushing joy, 

And all things most divine; 
Like all whose presence calms annoy, 

Whose absence makes us pine; 
These souls possess a magic dower, 

And each and all are blest; 
When held within each charming power 

The last one is the best. 



A WISH. 



My Dear! Just read that foolish line. 

Oh womankind are mad ! 
The only thing that is divine 

Is folly fashion clad. 
From reason's virtues now divorced 

To folly they are wed; 
And round her circles ever forced 

And by her daily fed. 

They need no character today. 

Oh anything in pants ! 
A monkey and a monkey's play 

And money them entrance. 
As man by gold, so womanness 

By nothing now is bought; 
A nothing in an evening dress 

And thousands may be caught. 



116 HOME SONGS 



The folly of their fashion's dress, 

Of idle vanity, 
Of pleasure, pride and wealthiness 

Is like insanity. 
I half believe what Darwin thought; 

For sure such foolishness, 
Is just a monkey little taught 

And togged up in a dress. 

The old ideal womankind, 

A helpmate unto man, 
A helpmate which the heavens find 

To build their noblest plan, 
Is shattered now or laughed away, 

Or lying in the dust; 
Like and unlike a child at play 

For folly all is thrust. 



To make a home was once an art; 

She mothered true the young, 
With God and heaven in her heart 

And gladness on her tongue. 
The home it was a glory then; 

The mother crowned with fame; 
Oh dark the dark eclipses when 

Her glory is her shame ! 

Another spirit has the throne; 

Another has the heart; 
Whom both the good and wise disown 

And from her far depart. 
Oh anything but want of thought 

And moral earnestness ! 
Oh anything but want of thought 

And foolish effervesce! 



HOME SONGS 117 



So when I see as I must see 

By word and ear and look, 
I scorn them far and wander free 

By forest, field or brook; 
I leave, I leave them far behind, 

And wander on my way; 
But here I pause and for my kind 

My wishing heart obey. 

Oh is there not a world divine ! 

A world of men alone ! 
With woman banished o'er the line, 

Or better, never known ! 
How many and many a man in this ! 

By woman's folly free, 
Has wished just such a bower of bliss 

Where starry spaces be. 

In such a world creation's lord 

Grows up unto his plan; 
Unfolding all within him poured, 

The noble world of man. 
Oh world of young and happy boys ! 

Oh bright aspiring youth ! 
Oh manhood's prime which nought destroys ! 

Oh hoary sires of truth ! 

Oh what a world of manhood's height! 

Oh bright celestial race ! 
Oh men ! Oh men ! ye rich bedight 

Thy very things with grace. 
To think of thee in but a dream 

Oh how the passions pine ! 
To feel thy presence on us stream 

Is sense and hope divine. 



118 HOME SONGS 



If wish can prophecy what is, 

There must be in the sky- 
Just such a world, and Oh the bliss 

To hold it in the eye ! 
Is that it yonder shining there? 

I'll spread my eagle wings ! 
I'll trust the vision shining fair ! 

I'll follow where it brings ! 



I'm rising to the world of men; 

The vision grows more clear; 
The earth is falling off my ken; 

And larger grows the sphere. 
Oh noble world ! Oh noble world 

Of boys and youth and man ! 
Of all the worlds around me whirled 

No brighter do I scan. 

Ye envy me my noble peers 

Whom I must leave behind; 
But I'll remember in the spheres 

And soon come back you'll find. 
Oh ! then ye all shall go with me, 

We'll leave the sisterhood; 
We hope that they will better be 

But we'll grow as we should. 

Let hope now ante-date the day, 

Our joys they overflow; 
Oh world of womanhood away ! 

Away ! Away we go ! 
Your follies now we free forgive ! 

Repent ! Repent we pray ! 
Oh world of men forever live ! 

Away ! Away ! Away ! 



HOME SONGS 119 

There, there my dear, don't look so glum ; 

Nor murmur eye or lip; 
For when I go I'll say "Come ! Come ! 

Come, join me in my trip." 
Since we have met not very far 

From each we've been below; 
So when I wing to that bright star 

Beloved thou shalt go. 

But hold ! Oh hold ! I'll take that back ! 

That pledge I'll hold in fee ! 
A gathering cloud around my track 

Debates and pauses me. 
There's danger in that happy joy 

To them and you and me; 
I'll leave thee here and after cloy 

Come back again to thee. 

One woman when the world began 

Made all our sorrows stream; 
One woman in the world of man 

Oh who would dare to dream! 
Thy spirit new before their eyes 

Would kindle all aglow. 
Such envy for a single prize 

Would more than sorrows sow. 



Alone among those kingly peers 

Admired and praised by all; 
Oh listen with your spirit ears ! 

Do whispers on them fall? 
Of woman's sin, her vanity; 

Of woman's wish, a thrall; 
Of woman's pride, insanity 

In those that round her fall? 



120 HOME SONGS 

And I who love thee as my life, 

And life is more than heart, 
From that high world to this of strife 

In silence would depart. 
When fallen from a golden throne, 

When broke the eagle's wing, 
Deserted, wandering and alone, 

Oh who could soar and sing? 

No ! No my dear ! When there I go, 

I'll leave thee here behind. 
I'll leave thee in the vales I know 

Where I again can find. 
I'ld lose a throne and diadem, 

All stars that gem the blue, 
The royal spirits crowning them 

Before I would lose you. 

Away Oh dream ! Oh come to me ! 

Thou art my heart's delight! 
My heart shall ever stay with thee 

Oh angel of my sight ! 
Farewell ! Farewell uncertain light ! 

These scraps of men be thine ! 
The world pure womanhoods bedight, 

These worlds and thou be mine ! 



HOME SONGS 121 



THE BABY SHOW. 



A half a dozen mothers met 

Upon a summer day; 
And tender in the shade were set 

The births that made the day. 
The babes that made the day for them 
And made the sun a paltry gem, 
Were cradled there 
And each was fair 
As lovers' eyes could wish or bear. 



Each baby's praise was said and sung 

In words of warmest fire; 
No poet with delirious tongue 

Could equal their inspire. 
The lover and the loved one lives 
Where all is bright superlatives. 
The mother heart 
Has love's best art 
And round her babe does all impart. 



At last the youngest said and smiled; 

"Let's have a baby show." 
I know the thought that her beguiled 

Though love would hide it low. 
"Agreed ! Agreed !" the chorus sung, 
And toward their infants instant sprung. 
The prize, the prize 
Was in each eyes 
Nor dreamed how doubt could here arise. 



122 HOME SONGS 

A maid to me the most divine 

By chance she came along; 
I called the mothers to the line 

And told to her the song. 
Now she'll be judge and so decide 
Between your fondness and your pride; 
For hearts that feel 
And drunken reel 
How could they such a claim now seal ? 

Such looks of hot contempt and flame, 

And words of sharpest fire, 
From lips and eyes and faces came, 

I shook before their ire. 
But Oh upon my bride divine ! 
Fell epithets of salted brine; 
Until we fled 
But still we said: 
We'll see the show that love has led. 

Each promised to impartial be; 

Each flung away her pride; 
Each scorned the honor she could see; 

Each from her hope untied; 
Truth, truth shall tell what babe is best 
In looks and health and all the rest 
Of baby wiles 
And angel smiles 
And promises that love beguiles. 

Each looked into each baby face, 

Right down into the heart, 
And every named and nameless grace 

Fixed on her mental chart. 
Then here and there, round, to and fro, 
Compared the points the others show; 
Life's lightest things 
On fairy springs 
Were balanced till the judgment wings. 



HOME SONGS 123 

A silence deep, and then was cast 

A most momentous note; 
The solemn truth was written fast 

For history in a vote: 
Each mother when the vote was read 
Wore victory on her flaming head, 
For just one vote 
Had every note, 
No two alike in that same boat. 

No evidence did bend a vote 
So much as by a hair, 
Though every mother thought each note 
Would her own judgment share. 
Oh how could any babe outshine 
The angel of each heart divine? 
It were a shame 
Such perfect claims 
Against each other thus to frame. 

Oh every mother's babe is best ! 

None can with it compare; 
She has a dream and found it blest 

With all her heart can bear. 
Though money, fashion, pleasure, power, 
Fill for the most the mortal hour, 
The mother true 
Has visions new 
Far deeper than we others view. 

Oh every mother's own is best ! 

She sees beneath the veil; 
The eyes of joy and love are blest 

To see where others fail: 
That something more is bound in this, 
A something that the others miss; 
A vital start 
From her own heart 
That never can from her depart. 



124 HOME SONGS 

Say "Love is foolish, deaf and blind ; 

Young mothers but insane; 
All these bright fancies rich and kind 

Around the heart and brain, 
Are reasonless and but the fruit 
Of nature's strong unconscious root:" 
The baby best 
From all the rest 
Is just that one upon her breast. 

'Tis more than most unbounded wealth ; 

It scorneth poverty; 
More priceless than all priceless health, 

And more if sick it be. 
In marble dome or cottage home 
Where ever through the earth we roam 
Of every birth 
That wakes our mirth 
Each mother folds the one of worth. 

Oh well for mother! Well for child! 

Oh well for earth oppressed ! 
That ere we are by sin defiled 
And wander sore distressed, 
A heart inlaid with softest love, 
With something like the heart above, 
Doth us receive 
When first we leave 
The heart alas how few retrieve ! 

Oh heart of high supremest love ! 

Oh heart within the heart ! 
Though high within thy heavens above 

Before us sure Thou art. 
For us Thou didst prepare the breast 
And something from Thy own impressed, 
But shall Thy heart 
Now as we art 
Receive us when we hence depart? 



HOME SONGS 125 



YOUNG MOTHERHOOD. 



Young Motherhood ! Young Motherhood ! 

How oft ye cross my way ! 
Like visits of the high and good 

Ye fill our common day. 
Ye float before my spirit's eyes 
With something of the azure skies, 
As flowers of earth 
At springtime's birth 
Bring dreams of something past their worth. 

My eyes rejoice when e'er we meet, 

What be the time or place; 
Within the home or on the street 

Thou always art a grace. 
Through golden noon and starry night 
Ye are a vision on my sight; 
But this the best, 
When on thy breast 
Thy loved one smiles in slumbers blest. 



Thou art the very dream we would ! 

A spirit most divine ! 
Thou crownest every earthly good 

And blessings round thee twine. 
This is rich heaven's royal seal 
Upon thy nature's high ideal, 
And her endower 
Of every power 
Is focused in thy passioned hour. 



126 HOME SONGS 

Thou art a virtue that doth show 

The virtues that abide. 
Oh is there sight in earth below 

Like heaven's chosen bride ! 
When such a bride God's loan and gift 
Into her passioned breast doth lift, 
The mortal veil 
Doth off me sail 
And God the mother heart I hail. 

And even when not perfect pure 

There's virtue in thy breast. 
The sparks divine thou dost secure 

And feed them with the best. 
Thy infant is and with it brings 
Something of heaven and holy things ; 
And in the fire 
Of this desire 
Thy heart must feel the first inspire. 

A world has passed away from thee; 

A world of time and sense; 
Deceptions, shadows, pagentry, 

Excitements and pretense. 
That world has passed thee as a dream 
Swift dancing down a sunny stream; 
But let it go, 
What dream can show 
A living heart with love in flow? 

Another world has dawned on thee 

Of love and light within; 
Another world, eternity 

Untouched by death and sin. 
What hosts of dreams and vital hopes 
Dress kingly life's ascending slopes ! 
What forms of light 
In beauty bright 
Come from thy heart and all bedight ! 



HOME SONGS 127 

Thou art not of this earthly show 

Of fashion, pleasure, pride; 
Thou art a glory here below ! 

A mother, wife and bride ! 
The Giver of each perfect gift 
Unto himself our lives would lift; 
And in thy heart 
With vital art 
Reveals his deep divinest part. 

What sweet content! What sacrifice! 

What calm and faith and joy! 
What happiness ! What paradise ! 

What wisdom and employ ! 
New virtues now of nobler worth 
Comes forth in thee with thy young birth; 
Nor sweeter grows, 
Nor warmer glows 
The morning sun or evening rose. 

Thine eyes are toward the coming years, 

Thy plans are reaching far, 
Thy thoughts are climbing golden spheres, 

Thy purpose to a star. 
What poetry of magic art 
Is born within thy dreaming heart, 
To so create 
A royal state 
As round a prince of monarchs great ! 

Thy ceaseless care and gentle might, 

To see it full unfold, 
It is a pleasure to the sight 

As mortal eyes behold. 
The softest and the tenderest 
Doth o'er the weak and slenderest 
Of spirits frail 
And features pale 
With passions deep most gently sail. 



128 HOME SONGS 

How oft upon the summer street 

My eyes have such beheld; 
Though passing as a shadow fleet 

My heart was touched and welled. 
That tenderness and soft caress, 
That look divine and gentle press, 
Through selfish strife 
With sorrows rife 
It struck the rock and out flowed life. 

The nobler men whom thou dost meet 

Rejoice in thee and thine; 
They breathe a prayer that passes fleet 

Straight to the heart divine. 
"Oh all supreme and mother love ! 

Protect them from Thy throne above; 
Surround them with Thy ceaseless care 
And both upon Thy bosom bear. 
Most, most from sin, 
Without, within, 
Oh shelter them till heaven they win!" 

And many a man within his breast 

That sense the same has felt; 
A hidden something none has guessed 

His icy bosom melt. 
When thee and thine their eyes behold 
The sealed-up heart doth free unfold, 
Till deeps divine 
Unbidden pine 
"Would such were mine ! Mine ! Only mine V 

Oh empty heart ! Oh empty heart ! 

For self were none create. 
And none their best can ere impart 

Till heart has found its mate; 
And hearts will never find their mates 
Till God the heart anew creates; 
When making new 
He maketh two 
Both complements high, pure and true. 



HOME SONGS 129 

Though now alone and far apart, 

All loves together run; 
Ye soon shall meet and heart to heart 

Forever more be one. 
Soft angels from the crystal spheres 
Shall bring thee faith and prayer and tears; 
And round this vine 
Thy hearts shall twine 
And grow up in the love divine. 



BECAUSE MY DEAR IT'S YOU. 

Oh listen now beloved wife! 

Anew my harp I string; 
Oh thou who are my life of life 

Another song I'll sing! 
Another song for earth's annoy 

My spirit doth impart; 
Oh crimson love ! Oh turtle dove ! 

Now listen at your heart. 

When on the summer's golden street 

I meet a maid divine 
Whose spirit pure and glad and sweet 

Doth through her body shine : 
White crystal soul and liquid voice, 

Soft eyes and youth's endew, 
I see and meet her with rejoice, 

Because my dear it's you. 

My eagle eye where'er she be 

Knows when her love awakes; 
When worlds like sunrise on the sea 

Within her bosom breaks. 
The gladness which the dreams above 

Can never know or near, 
I hail with joy and share her love, 

Because it's you my dear. 



130 HOME SONGS 

And when one leads her up the aisle 

With orange blossoms crowned, 
When more than summer heavens smile 

And more than raptures bound, 
When granite strength and tenderness 

Are joined forever true, 
The bride, the bride thy heart can guess 

Because my dear it's you. 

When then they form a little home, 

A paradise divine; 
And round the queen from yonder dome 

Soft angel hearts entwine; 
For these who'd wish a world's domain 

Though blessed without a tear? 
I'd barter such and count it gain 

For you and them my dear. 

When e'er I hear a kingly man 

Sing praises of his wife, 
Extol the Planner and the plan 

That joined her to his life; 
Such thought and feeling fill the pause 

Of life with music new; 
I echo long the loud applause, 

Because my dear it's you. 

And when the poet from his mind 

A form divine creates, 
With every virtue rich entwined 

That sorrow contemplates ; 
I gaze upon the matchless grace 

And bless him saint and seer; 
Then quick my soul doth her embrace 

Because it's you my dear. 



HOME SONGS 131 

When high before him the throne of light 

Vast spirits I behold, 
Arrayed in royal purple bright 

Or crimson, white or gold; 
From seraph ranks or from the bride, 

Whose splendors blind the view, 
I choose the one just at my side 

Because my dear it's you. 

In heaven and earth, through space or time 

Of all eternity, 
While being's starry goal I climb 

I still will dream of thee. 
When mounting up the golden streets 

Of each discovered sphere, 
The best beloved my spirit greets 

It will be you my dear. 

All hail redeeming high Triune ! 

Redeemed from self and sin; 
With Thee and Thine to rich commune 

Thy grace has gathered in. 
The heart that will with Thee envine, 

Come ! Come Oh soul and see ! 
Shall find itself and souls divine 

To all eternity. 



132 HOME SONGS 

BOYHOOD'S HOME. 

I wish I were a boy again 

In childhood's happy home ! 
I see it perfect in my ken, 

Though far from it I roam. 
The house stands yonder on the hill, 

The garden and the flowers, 
With cosy rooms and love to kill 

My daily wearied powers. 
Though poor it had a sweet content, 

A pleasure, hope and peace, 
For heaven had "round about it lent 

Good health with largest lease. 
Oh home ! Thou art of earth most blest ! 

Home, thou art nearest heaven ! 
And more to-day, since this lost heart 

Beats on through night and levin. 
I've passed to here from place to place; 

From house to house depart; 
But never found the happy grace 

That makes thee what thou art. 
For years and years I've wandered round ; 

I live but have no home ; 
I seek, but never yet have found 

The place for which I roam. 
How often through night's lighted panes 

Thy image springs on me ! 
What love ! What peace ! What happy strains ! 

Who has not longed for thee? 
I envy not the rich and great 

Their gifts of power and place; 
The poor man's more than royal state 

Of home I would embrace. 
I wish I were a boy again ! 

I'm weary with life's roam ! 
I wish my heart could rest as when 

It did in boyhood's home ! 



HOME SONGS 13J 



THE WHISTLING GIRL. 

Oh the whistling girl is the girl for me ! 
So happy, so bright and so charmingly free; 
With her heart most full and an overflow 
Like a crystal stream or the winds that blow. 

A heart that is full of delirious life 
Will unfold itself in harmonious strife; 
Be a strange combine of a girl and a boy 
And them both at once in their wildest joy. 

The elements rich of the pure and free 
Like the fountains burst in their gurgling glee; 
And what a surprise that the heart of life 
Through the maid should sing as a whistling fife. 

We will name not now the piccolo notes 
Which the instrument on the evening floats; 
And the whistling breath of the artist's lips 
May the simple play of the maid eclipse. 

Her notes may not rival the bird that mocks 
The cage or the branch that her passion rocks; 
Nor the piping sound of her sisters fair 
Should we measure now with her artless air. 

But the bristling pride of the neighbor's boy 
She will often shame, and her bubbling joy 
Will cast on the wind an echoing laugh, 
That is borne away like the flakes of chaff. 

The mother may fret and the father scold 
At the tom-boy girl and her nature bold, 
For the family line with its long uncurl 
Was never disgraced with a whistling girl. 



134 HOME SONGS 

And the uncles come and they smile or stare, 
And the aunties come and are bowed with care, 
And the cousins come when they hear the fame 
Of the whistling girl who is past all shame. 

The gossiping few that are always found, 
Behold her and hear and they gather round; 
On the lips, the lips, what a burdened sigh? 
But the heart and eye they are double dry. 

Oh the whistling girl ! Oh the whistling girl ! 
How the faded maid and the jilted churl, 
Turn the heart and ear that her unbefriend, 
And whisper the story of some "bad end." 

Oh leave her alone ! Let her childish heart 
Find a free express in all innocent art. 
For a sight like that in a world like this 
Were a parent's joy and a poet's bliss. 

Oh leave her alone, for the poet said 
To such blighting souls whom the night had fed : 
"The girls that whistle like hens that crow 
Will make their way wherever they go." 

They will make their way as the birds that sing 
After winter's blight in the happy spring 
Make way with a song to our hungry ears 
And open the fount of our healing tears. 

They will make their way as the morning lark 
Doth rise from the vale and the shadows dark, 
And above the hills in the sun's first rays 
Unburdens her heart in delirious praise. 

They will make their way as a few stray notes 
From a wife or a child or a loved one floats 
On the heart of man, and the strength of life 
Is engirded strong for the day of strife. 



HOME SONGS 135 

They will make their way as a sinless child 
Can enter the heart of the sin denied, 
And banish the sorrow of long dark years 
And inspire a hope in the midst of fears. 

"They will make their way to the woman's years 
With a grace beloved but seldom appears 
Both a heart and mind that is poised at rest 
And in blessing all is the one most blessed. 

"They will make their way to a noble heart 
And receiving it will the more impart. 
Both a hope unknown and a faith divine 
And a helping life that will upward twine. 

Oh the whistling girl is the girl for me ! 
For the kind of fruit in the bud I see. 
Go ! Go my song and behold the sight ! 
Then kiss her for me to thy heart's delight. 



THE WIFE'S RETURN. 



The wife came home to-night, 
And with her came the day 
That shineth round her bright 
And with her went away. 

The blossoms, trees and wind 

And all of nature sighed ; 
The day grew sudden blind, 

And starless night did ride 
Upon my heart and mind 

When steamed away my bride. 



136 HOME SONGS 



But since she has come home 

I'm happy as can be. 
The murmuring wine doth foam 
With drunken extacy. 

My brain is all on fire, 

My heart is full of love, 
And eyes have their desire. 

The happy madness of 
The heavens and inspire 
Rains on me from above. 



I'm wrapped in dreams to-night ! 

I'm in a dream of bliss ! 
Our courtship at its height 
A desert were to this ! 

A dream within a dream ! 

And the dream divinely blest, 
For beside me in the gleam 
A more than bridal guest, 
That brings a summer stream 
Into my winter breast. 



Light up the windows wide ! 

Throw blinds and curtains back ! 
And let the brightness ride 
Into the darkness black. 

Oh light up every pane 

And brighten every room ! 

Let light and gladness reign 

And banish every gloom ! 

Let the house be like a fane 

The souls of light illume. 



HOME SONGS 137 



Oh call the neighbors in ! 

We'll kill the fatted calf! 
Call all my kith and kin 
To see my "better half" ! 

We'll spill the oldest wine 

And feast on ripest fruits; 
Uncork the hearts benign 

With joy and song that suits; 
Make this return divine 
With wedding magic flutes. 



Oh let the music play ! 

Call the musicians in ! 
Give them a place, I pray, 
Piano, violin ! 

I'm nimble as the snipes, 

As swallows on the wing; 
I could wave the stars and stripes 
And dance the highland fling; 
I could play the tartan pipes 
And in the Gallic sing. 



I'm richer than a king! 

I'm larger than a lord ! 
Thrones and empires I could fling 
Like pennies from a hoard ! 
Here is the poet's lyre ! 

Life's royal robes of might ! 
Here is the heart of fire, 

Crown, scepter, jewels bright ! 
You may take your best desire 
If you leave my soul's delight. 



138 HOME SONGS 



A man that has a wife, 

A home that's full of love, 
He is the king of life, 
And heir to more above. 

A man with such a wife 

His heaven has begun. 
He is more than king of life 
And can walk or fly or run. 
Has his victory in the strife 
And "a mortgage on the sun." 



Soul Songs 



HOW SWIFT OUR LIFE ! 

How swift! How swift our life is run 
And we give up this breath ! 

'Tis just one circle of the sun 
And we lie down in death. 

As full of hope as morn of life 
We come to front the years; 

We turn us mangled by the strife 
And torn by grief and fears. 

Sweet, soft and calm and innocent 

We come forth to the light; 
Most guilty, wretched and misspent 

We pass on out of sight. 

How swift! How swift our life is run 
And we give up this breath ! 

'Tis just one circle of the sun 
And we lie down in death. 



DRIVEN. 

'Tis up and down and o'er the world, 

Around and here and there, 
Dark, tempest driven, tossed and whirled 

From port to port of care: 
We voyage thus the sea of life 

Till stormy wind and wave 
Upon death's shore in mortal strife 

Doth cast us for the grave. 



140 SOUL SONGS 



OUR LIFE. 



A little moment's play 

With simple toys; 
Dreams, dreams for many a day 

Songs, hopes and joys. 

An hour of selfish toil; 

Work, eat and sleep; 
Gain, loss and grief and soil 

In all we reap. 

Our work and we ere noon 
Sleep neath the grass; 

Our names from night and noon 
As shadows pass. 



AN APPEAL. 



"No ! I won't go to hear that man preach again. 
I've heard enough. Every time I hear the speech 
Of one of these impassioned, terrifying men, 
A something strange doth to my spirit reach 
And shakes my world of hopes to chaos. They preach 
Against the world and time; or 'gainst the straws 
Of money, dress or pleasure. With fire they teach 
Abstract principles, impossible laws, 
Doubtful ideals, or strange beseech 
By sacrifice that seems to have no cause, 
And thrust me in the dark with strange unreasoned awes." 



SOUL SONGS 141 

"Every time I hear one of these men preach, 
They preach me out of my religion. My hopes 
Of heaven and the confidence I teach 
My heart to hold beneath the frowning copes 
Of time they tear right out of soul that opes 
To them in spite of me. Beneath their blight 
My spirit seems swift driven down the slopes 
Of life, and when I leave them their fiery sight 
Doth follow me. After, when my blindness gropes 
For some support their thunders on me light, 
Or else a mighty flash wakes wide the void of night." 

"Besides, they fulminate against the churches 
And slander her with bitter poison stings. 
Exalted high on their self-righteous perches 
They think themselves as angels; and us, things 
Of dirt. They think that no one has the springs 
Of goodness but their own elected few. 
Our minister, to whom my reverence clings, 
Does not espouse these teachings that are new. 
He said to me: 'Enthusiasm brings 
The inharmonious, disproportioned true; 
But better far to hold the 'rounded truth' in view.' " 



"Oh prophets, priests and poets ! Oh divine 
And noblest natures that adorn the earth ! 
Oh spirits high impassioned with a wine 
Of life far purer than our mortal birth ! 
Oh oracles on whom the light doth shine 
The secret truths of high celestial worth ! 
My spirit doors of sorrow and of mirth 
I open wide and entrance loud beseech; 
From base to cope, from centre to the girth 
Of all my life I urge on ye to preach 
Your inmost heart to mine in most unvarnished speech." 



142 SOUL SONGS 

"Soft, velvet words may fill your mouths of truth 
When there is need, but now speak forth your fire 
Unto my heart. No false or deadly ruth 
Restrain the strength of your celestial choir 
Though me it blast as life doth blast our youth. 
If consciousness unfathoms thy require, 
If character dishonors thy inspire, 
If aught there be rebellious to the light, 
If ill be hid in motive or desire, 
Oh preach me out of my religion ! Oh blight 
My hopes forever ! The hopes of my delight 
Oh quench them as the storms oft quench the stars of 
night !" 

"And Thou, Oh Death! Thou Prince and Power of 

darkness ! 
Thou Sorrow ! Silence ! Reverence and Repose ! 
With uncompassioned hand, Oh tear the dress 
Of time asunder ! this dress of mortal shows. 
Speak ! Speak to me with the undivided stress 
Of all Thou art, and all thy kingdom knows 
Of life and the last change it undergoes. 
Since untold hosts thy presence undeceives 
At the last hour, now ere my mortal close 
Tear the lie from my right hand, although it leaves 
Defenceless, blind and lost and hell itself receives." 

"Oh disenthrall and disembody me 
From all that blinds or warps me from the sense 
To feel and know what I must shortly be ! 
Oh pass me through thy last experience 
Though spirit yet from body is not free ! 
And plant me face to face before the whence? 
And why? and what? that underlies this dense 
Insensibility, and stands blank before 
Earth's blindness and her vain and proud pretense. 
Oh unrobe thy naked presence I implore, 
And by the truth Thou art destroy the false I store !" 



SOUL SONGS 143 

"Both Life and Death and Ministers between 
There is no exposition of the laws 
Can be too straight, and no application lean 
So heavy as to give the least cause 
Of complaint. Oh preach the truth: life's unseen 
Alabaster purity, that awes 
The senseless, blind contaminated flaws 
Of nature ! Here is my conscience : her enthrone 
And vitalize to hear ye with applause ! 
Truth the strongest, straightest, sternest ever known, 
Oh speak unto her heart that never can disown !" 

"Oh Angel of the judgement! Thou presidest 
Over life and death ; over all of man, 
His word and deed and even what residest 
In his sub-conscious heart, Oh speak as when 
In Thy tremendous hour Thou decidest 
The disentangled issues of this den 
Of wickedness ! Now unto me as then, 
Oh speak thy all to my receptive heart 
By thunder voice, by blinding lightning ken, 
Or all the awful presence that thou art ! 
In silence now I wait and merciless impart." 



"My life resolve into its primal elements, 
And deepen consciousness until it feels 
The trifles mere the conscience unpresents, 
Since of a word the solemn record peals. 
How earth and time and my false heart dements 
Me from the truth ! But now my spirit kneels 
Before the awful presence that reveals 
The heart unto itself. Oh place me in the fire ! 
The fire whose strength the inmost soul unseals; 
The secret heart of motive and desire, 
Which never till thy hour dreamed they could life inspire." 



144 SOUL SONGS 

"What multitudes from this dark clouded clime 
With firmest hope went straight unto Thy hour! 
One blinding glance from eyes of light sublime 
Striking the conscience did instant disendower 
Their spirits from the highest thrones of time. 
When natures of such wide reputed power 
Are workers of iniquity, Oh tower 
Of truth ! White indignation against sin ! 
Glowing shekinah fire ! Come and devour 
All sin in me ! Burn, burn it out ! Burn in 
The naked fact I am is all my heart would win." 



Oh most sublime Eternity ! Thou 
Altitudinal spirit of the spaces ! 
Forever great, forever true, so now 
Thou watchest all in being's mystic races. 
Within the seed, far, far before the plow 
Thou seest what the hidden germ embraces, 
The harvest vast of virtues or disgraces. 
Ten thousand times thine eyes have seen the law 

- Of finite life unfold in all its places, 

So Thou art wise ; thy wisdom, truth and awe 

Up to thy shadowed form my mortal heart doth draw." 



"Oh is there aught within the depths of space 
As close or deeper than this law of right ? 
In all the boundlessness of time I face 
Ahead, Oh ! Is there yet a moral height 
Beyond this sense of duty that doth grace 
My heart, and her imaginations bright 
Which conscience quick stings forth into the night? 
Justice, truth, Tightness and purity 
Form the earth's foundations, and bedight 
The wide expansive heavens. Oh can there be 
Another base and height, sweep and intensity?" 



SOUL SONGS 145 

"All that thou art, art thou not here below 
This mortal life, the strength of all we be? 
Can these high natures change when hence we go, 
When life is now the very life of thee? 
If there be found after this sense we throw 
A stronger grip, fiercer intensity 
In those vast laws that. ever rule the free, 
That grip, tension and comprehensiveness, 
Oh bring them now and fix them fast on me ! 
The passioned heart of all thy laws no less 
Then their wide circumference deep deep upon me press/* 

"And Thou, Oh God ! I lift my last appeal 
To Thee; for Thou art sovereign and supreme 
O'er life and death, and Thy hand doth unseal 
The visions from the prophet's land of dream. 
Deep underneath eternity we fell 
Thou art; and as the vital airy stream 
Is round the earth, and all her natures teem 
With atmospheric life, so Thou art round 
And penetrateth all creation. The seem 
Of life deceives by sense and sight and sound; 
We live and move in Thee; Thou art the spirit's ground." 



"All powers and laws that are, or ever can be 
Laid upon this mortal immortality 
Surround me now forever more in Thee. 
Speak ! Speak with the unformality 
Of life, and with an earnestness be free 
Though it seem to my blind heart brutality. 
Thou knowest not the self's partiality 
So what Thou art Thou surely shalt reveal 
And so make known my own finality. 
My spirit ears their deafness Oh unseal ! 
And quicken my dead heart that what it hears to feel. 



146 SOUL SONGS 

"Oh plant the base of this deep universe ! 
Thy own essential life, Oh plant it right 
Beneath my soul ! and though it write a curse, 
Thy perpendicular Oh raise unto the height 
Of infinite perfection ! and so reverse 
The moral judgements of this surrounding night 
Of ignorance and sin. Level, plumb, square and sight 
My naked spirit by what Thou truly art 
In Thy high heaven of pure effulgent light ! 
Since Thy first sense did visit my dark heart 
I've wished alone for Thee and more of truth's impart/' 

"Not only of Thy love to me reveal, 
For well I know my heart can sore abuse 
This revelation that the virtuous doth seal 
Unto Thyself. Glowing holiness infuse 
Into Thy love and so preserve the weal 
Of both ; but all the former I would choose 
Before this true self-knowledge I would loose. 
Be round about me as a seven-fold fire ! 
Consume my sins ! Harmonize me to the thews 
Of holiness ! The infinite requires 
Of Thee and of Thy law is what my soul desires." 

"Upon this one conviction of my heart 

Which was and is my spirit's starry pole; 

That Thou wilt show and lead to what Thou art 

The sinful life that knows no other goal, 

My spirit now will rest. The best impart 

Of life has been from Thee; and the years that roll 

Their changes on me Thy grace will still control 

To teach my heart the lessons most divine. 

- Small was the price although it was my whole 
I paid to learn what sin I did enshrine; 

All other price I gladly pay to learn life's larger line." 



SOUL SONGS 147 



PETER TAUGHT. 



"Before the cock crow this day twice 
Thou, Peter, shall deny me thrice 

Before men all; 
For thou a stranger to thy heart 
Must first be taught just what thou art 

By fearful fall." 

"Though all should Thee in fear deny, 
I swear before the Lord, not I ! 

I will be true ! 
I'll dare man's power and scorn and hate ! 
My Lord ! My God ! I'll choose my fate, 

I'll die for you!" 

"Enough ! Enough ! Wait well the time ! 
These oaths do but increase thy crime ; 

But prayers prevail; 
And after thou art turned again, 
Oh strengthen thou thy fellow-men 

Whom sins assail." 

Oh well we know ! All round the world 
Has Peter's thrice denial been hurled; 

But few have learned 
The living truth of Peter's fall, 
Though in the hearts and lives of all 

It must be burned. 

From nature's state of ignorance, 
From self and all self confidence, 

We must awake. 
The world and all things are combined 
To quicken the immortal mind 

And moral make. 



148 SOUL SONGS 

The soul unto itself must come, 
Or can it be but deaf and dumb 

Unto another? 
Self knowledge unto heaven towers, 
And walks among these mortal powers 

As life's best brother. 

We must come up: stand face to face: 
Measure time's strength, and under base 

This world of strife. 
Can promise, power or progress be 
If we are blind or partial see 

The truths of life? 

Far deeper, deeper we must go 
Until we find the life below; 

The heart and brain 
Must strike their root; kick out the ground 
Until the living rock is found 

That doth sustain. 

Brought to ourselves, to life and God ! 
How few ! How few are wise and awed ! 

The dragon's tooth, 
That tears us through these mortal years 
Of falls, disgraces, shame and tears, 

Teaches the truth. 

Then we can come to God and give 
Ourselves to Him. Then we can live; 

Be pure and free. 
Then we can triumph o'er the curse, 
Then can crown with glorious verse 

Eternity. 

Oh wise ! Oh wise ! Divinely wise 
'Bove colleges or books, the eyes 

That lightning scan 
The nature, powers, motives, and deeps 
That hide within life's secret keeps, 

The heart of man. 



SOUL SONGS 149 

A BOY AGAIN. 

"I wish I were a boy again I" 

Keeps coming in my mind; 
The more I live and move with men 

The more I look behind. 
A something strange, yet strong and clear, 

Like echoes from the past, 
Like love now lost but still more dear 

Those times upon me cast. 
Oh times ! Oh times forever flown ! 

Oh days forever dear ! 
The farther from me ye are thrown 

The closer ye come near. 
Thy memories cast their magic spell 

Upon my heart and mind, 
And visions bright as poets tell 

The mortal hour doth blind. 
Ye were the angels of the morn 

With golden raiment clad; 
Your locks and wings were never shorn, 

Your hearts and faces glad. 
Ye were the spirits most divine; 

Ye made a heaven of earth, 
And lifted up the sparkling wine 

To me with beaded mirth. 
But now as meteors of the sky 

Ye most are hid from sight, 
Yet sometimes burst and on the eye 

Cast splendors swift and bright. 
Ye now are dreams on golden wings 

From paradise divine, 
Which often comes and gently sings: 

"Come back to me and mine." 
"Come back! Come back Oh weary worn! 

Come back Oh wandering child ! 
Come back to me though heart is torn 

And hungry and denied !" 



!50 SOUL SONGS 

When round me now, unlike of yore, 

Unbid ye sweep my skies; 
When through my day and night ye soar 

A something dims my eyes. 
A something in my soul doth melt 

And flows around my heart, 
Until these walls the moments belt 

Are sundered far apart. 
I slip by some divine device 

From hate and strife and wrong, 
Back to my childhood paradise 

Of love and light and song; 
Back to my childhood paradise 

Of hope and joy and life, 
Untouched by earth's contagious vice, 

Or fear or grief or strife. 
Dear is the dream and bright the hour, 

And sweet the song ye sing; 
But Oh how short ! for time and power 

Me swiftly back doth bring. 
I wish I were a boy again ! 

Oh my departed years ! 
I wish so much I cannot pen 

The fountain of my tears. 



YOU HAVE NEVER SUFFERED. 



What! "Never suffered!" "Never wept!" 

I have not known the griefs that kill 
When gold and health afar are swept, 

And die the hopes our youth instill ! 

I have not known the anguish thrill 
When cradle angels far have flown ! 

Nor when her soul our own doth fill 
Is root drawn out with stifled groan 
And leaves us years and years to moan and moan and moan ! 



SOUL SONGS 151 

Yes ! I have suffered ! I have wept ! 

Death once my spirit did baptize; 
Her waves o'er my warm bosom, swept 

Me deep in losses, fears and cries. 

In life the deepest pain still lies 
To love the best but sunken deep 

In earth to have no strength to rise; 
To lose the dream and this to reap 
Is such a state of grief as few of mortals weep. 

Eclipsed was all my morning light; 

The silver moons and suns of gold 
Darted no gleam through day or night, 

And hope did not a ray unfold. 

To triple blackness I was sold; 
The nights of sin and fear and hell 

Their mantles round my soul did fold; 
From nature, God and man there fell 
Egyptian night and plagues no mortal tongue can tell. 

I oft have prayed for hours and hours 
Till bone and breast and heart did ache; 

Through darkest night in lonely bowers 
The ear of God I tried to wake 
By calling "Mercy!" "For love's sake!" 

"Oh Father save !" "Give me a staff !" 
My groans deep echoes then did wake 

As if some demons wine did quaff, 
And mocked me in their drink with mad delirious laugh. 

I oft have wept, not rainbow tears ; 

Those mortal wounded hope may bleed; 
Or deep despair in her last fears. 

Such drops the lost in hell do feed 

To slack their conscience burning greed; 
Tears glowing white and spiked with pain 

As twisting, tearing bullets speed, 
Shot from my heart with fearful strain, 
Through aching aching breast and hand enclasped brain. 



152 SOUL SONGS 

My heart was often like a hell, 

And feeling like her fiery waves ; 
Such storms of wrath and darkness fell 

As round her shores forever raves; 

The steep washed gulf and deepest caves 
Were dashed and swept, and I was borne 

Over the crimson crested graves 
With hated, vast, majestic scorn, 
Here and there, around and round and torn and torn and 
torn. 

My mind was like a serpent's nest 

Where beast with beast doth fiercely wrangle; 
The noblest thoughts with godlike crest 

The lowest strained and tried to strangle; 

But these with bright death anger spangle 
Oft conquered them; and strifeful reigns 

With all these woes that sins entangle 
Did sweep across my spirit plains 
And caused such agony as cannot now have strains. 

My soul bare nerved has lived for years 

With sorrow as my only mate; 
An ancient curse with cloudy fears 

Doomed o'er me night of blackest fate. 

Remorseful serpent thoughts with hate- 
Ful tooth and fangs upon me came; 

Fire hailing clouds with thunders great, 
And furies with no mortal name 
Swift chased my naked soul through hell's white torturing 

flame. 

Consigned it seems to demon hate 

I suffered what their rage may dare; 
Fiends glad their hearts to satiate, 

Leaped on my soul with hungry tear; 

Their red-hot fingers in my bare 
Breast they thrust, and in delirious glee 

The nervous cords from life's deep lair 
They pulled and snapped as elastic free, 
Till I became unconscious and writhed in agony. 



SOUL SONGS 153 

Yes ! I have suffered ! I have wept 

Far more than myself can own ! 
When feeling strong the heart has swept 

What tongue can reproduce the groan? 

And if I could I would not moan 
To weeping, broken-hearted earth; 

'Tis sorrow's work to undertone 
High thoughts and feelings of her birth, 
And other souls to teach her priceless priceless worth. 

For sorrow is of gifts the gift 

When heaven's grace her tears doth bring, 
To purge, to strengthen, guide and lift, 

And touch the lips with fire to sing; 

Her losses and her sharpness sting 
From self into the soul divine, 

Whose life and love and light will spring 
In all the forms which joy can sign, 
And mingled with the grief the purest joys enshrine. 



KNOWLEDGE. 

Wisdom unto her sons, the wise, 

This virtue free doth give: 
To know ten thousand truths and lies 

Though them they do not live. 
Folly unto her thoughtless own 

Is their most deadly foe; 
Through truth and lies with loss and groan 

They live, but do not know. 



154 SOUL SONGS 



MONOPOLY CHRISTIANS. 



In these last days intensifying life 

Doth seek to pass the individual bound. 
The conscienceness of their resources rife 

Inspires to work from universal ground. 

A spirit cosmopolitan has found 
Our mighty men and poured a lust of gain 

In all controlling measures; they are bound 
By the new time-spirit, and the ancient reign 
With twice millennial strength is scorned and burst in twain. 

The town, the city and the state no more 
Form ample field for their ambitious gain; 

A nation and her continental store 
Of boundless wealth now fill their heated brain 
With sordid calculations. Their wish has twain 

Imperial eyes of selfishness that reach 

Beyond the old ancestoral dreams; they fain 

Would gather all and in the mind of each 
Inspires the widest plans she bodies faint in speech. 

Their expansive base of operations 

Has passed the bound of moderate designs; 
In east and western wak'ning populations 

They see the mart for which ambition pines. 

They claim the world; and with protentous signs 
That solemn word fills dream and speech and plan. 

The vast round globe and her multitudinous lines 
Of brotherhood, all, all of earth and man 
Is but a sphere of gain their eyes delight to scan. 



SOUL SONGS 155 

To quicker reach that heaven of their dreams 
Their souls and wealth unite; as unions hold 

A greater power than scattered gold. In streams 
Their capital in one vast mass is rolled 
To near the billion mark. Each day is told 

Of larger combinations that are formed 
With enterprise enchanting young and old. 

When the new spirit has their visions warmed 
The most chaotic state with cosmos skill is stormed. 

Their accumulated wealth grows with surprise 
Beyond their own first dreams, and piles of gold 

Are as a heaven unto their blinded eyes. 
Yon golden sun whose splendors pure are rolled 
Free to the hungry void, do they behold 

Life's image best of man or God divine? 

A sphere like that with bowels of wealth untold 

Is all the heaven for which their spirits pine; 
Is all the heaven or God they wish to on them shine. 

Beside the mountains and across the land 
Their towering plants engage all to behold; 

And by the sea what mighty fabrics stand? 
The sea itself is conquered or has sold 
Her ancient strength to their persistence bold. 

As the night builds up her jeweled splendored cone 
On the broad circle which the earth has scrolled, 

Their plans to most colossal works have grown, 
To towering majesty all fear nor dare disown. 

But Oh alas ! Earth's largest enterprise 

From dark foundation to her crowning stone 
Has nought high pleasing to the Judge's eyes, 

Or even ought he dare consistent own. 

From self it came, for self has greater grown, 
And self is always passioned with a curse. 

That vilest heart with loud and laboring moan 
Pulses her life and against her brothers nurse 
A course of monster crimes that groweth worse and worse. 



156 SOUL SONGS 

They buy the college, the pulpit and the press, 
And their unprophet priests who sell the race, 

God and themselves for gain. Their gold doth dress 
The politician to their needs, and their powers displace 
The majesties of law that alone can grace 

An earthly government. They rule all mortal spheres 
And the golden heights of heaven would embrace, 

Though the broken heart and helpless crimson tears 
Of the wide brotherhood they trample without fears. 

Their concentrated power, wisdom, skill and wealth 

They fix with hate on each weak, struggling foe; 
Then in the dark as a murderer by stealth 

They strike but once with death's unerring blow. 

Ten thousand men whose spirits once did glow 
With ambitious hope and ardors of our youth 

They undermined and sold and thrust below. 
All love and joy, inspire and hope and truth, 
From the very heart of life they trample without ruth. 

Meditated, and so conscious of their end, 

The wide world's bread they struggle to secure. 

To the winter's blast their selfishness would send 
The nation. In earth's vile dens they would immure 
The immortal sons of God, who endure 

Worse, far worse than the very dogs of gain. 
The most stupendous crimes we can be sure 

Are those in which a mighty heart and brain 
Though without senses foul the needy's hope has slain. 

The brow of age can deep be trampled down; 

The newborn babe inherit but a curse; 
Our manhood's prime insulted as a clown 

And hopeful youth vain struggle to reverse 

Their lot; the coming generation worse, 
Far worse may be so they increase their store; 

All heart and mind is from life's need to nurse 
The state of strife that will augment still more 
Their blood-stained, stolen wealth, their power and place and 
lore. 



SOUL SONGS 157 

The images of God upon this earth; 

Law, justice, truth, reverence and righteousness, 
Faith, purity and love, which have their birth 

In God's own heart, and sent from him to dress 

Themselves in mortal flesh, and in the stress 
And strain of life to grow unto the height 

Which welcome shall the courts of blessedness: 
These images: God's most supreme delight, 
In others and themselves they slay both day and night. 

The sacred fountains of the nation's life 

Is not exempt from their contamination. 
Ideals and visions with destructions rife 

And blasphemies against God's high creation 

They sow upon the nourishing elation 
Of our youth. Such example on the soil 

Of selfishness will breed within the nation 
A savage host whose natures will dispoil 
Time's noblest crowning work and glory of her toil. 

And these are members of the living Christ; 

Among the saints their names are written down; 
These are the men whose gifts, repeated and unpriced, 

That bride-elect is wearing as her crown; 

And to fellowship with them, she doth gown 
Herself in queen's apparel. This is the race 

From whom she now receives her best renown, 
And promenades before high heaven's face 
Counting their princely gifts as her divinest grace. 

And the churches sanction this gigantic 

Selfishness, and lifts their hands in benediction 

On these purpureal and most titanic 

Crimes against God's humanity. If conviction 
With sublimest passion tears the fiction 

From her hypocritical heart and eyes, 
That apostate with loud malediction 

Quick from her congregation soon doth ostracise, 
Inspires the rabble mob and their death frenzied cries. 



158 SOUL SONGS 

Are these disciples of the love divine? 

Which throned above those rich eternal skies, 
Surrounded by bright seraphimic line 

And hymned supreme by first archangel cries, 

Through their loud chorus heard our burdened sighs 
And did divest himself of the endower 

No soaring dream has dared to faint surmise: 
Surrendered self, gave God, heaven, friends and power, 
Entered our mortal line and shared our earthly hour. 

Follow they that sacrificial love 

Who standing midst this dark and selfish throng, 
Emptied a heart as rich as heaven above, 

And burning thoughts that on their guilty wrong 

Fell as lightning bolts from heaven on the strong 
Violators of humanity? and as He died 

His vast magnanimous soul did song 
Itself like a flow of heaven's golden tide 
In rich forgiving strains upon their deicide. 

Who dreams these image forth that sunlike heart 

That with triumphant majesty arose; 
Then with a grace to feed all poet's art 

His kingdom's gates wide opened to his foes? 

A forgiveness as the sifted mountain snows; 
A place beneath a father's lightning eyes; 

A heart of love that flows and overflows 
A nature like the sun within the skies; 
A life that giveth all and giving thus shall rise. 

Are these disciples of that love divine 
That rules as king this climbing universe? 

Who underneath all hierarchs that shine, 
And peopled worlds of purity or curse 
Doth plant himself as the one maternal nurse 

Of all created being? whose vast endower 
Is not for self but freely doth disburse 

To all their needs now portions of his power, 
And lifts them up in love more strong from hour to hour. 



SOUL SONGS 159 

Are these like him whose life and word both taught 

The everlasting, absolutest right 
Of those high moral elements that are wrought 

Into our natures? whose heightless height, 

Impassionedness and majesty and might 
Are worth far more in men than a universe 

Without them? Does not their denial smite 
All resistance with a cinerating curse, 
And prophecies a wrath these violations nurse? 

Have they received his matchless, matchless grace 

Who gathers all who will around him cling? 
In his monarchial state there is no place 

For selfish souls but each is as the king. 

There the glory of the strong is to fling 
Themselves at the burdened base or battling gate; 

While far on high or in sheltered safety sing 
The new born babes, the low and weak estate 
Who give more than they take and make the great more 
great. 

Oh tell me Truth ! Can a man be a christian man 

Whose fundamental principle is to give, 
And a part or sympathetic with the clan 

Whose fundamental principle is exclusive 

Of every other? Does this spirit live 
With his spirit the most divine, who gave 

Himself to save us most from our destructive 
Selves of selfishness? And dare presumption crave 
A portion of that life that died and lives to save? 

Oh tell me Truth? Can any heart that draws 
Its life from a sacrifice of such renown, 

So violate the everlasting laws 
That base and build, that penetrate and crown 
The universe? What man could trample down 

His own divinest essence in the mire? 
How then the Christ when he again doth gown 

Himself in flesh destroy his high inspire? 
And far more than himself, his own eternal sire? 



160 SOUL SONGS 

Shall pride and contumacious selfishness, 
Far harder to their brother's helpless need 

Than are the granite rocks to herbs that dress 
Their desolation, find their spirits freed 
From self and sin when death's rapacious greed 

Shall gather them into her hungry deep? 
Oh who can dream such a disembodied deed 

On lightning wings to heaven's gates will sweep 
Where justice, truth and power their thrones eternal keep? 

Shall this puissant, hardened self of curse 

That murder has in her strong passioned heart, 

Murder of self, God and the universe 
Of living souls, ever find a place and part 
In that kingdom blest whence lightning thoughts dart 

Through our darkness? where love is like the sun, 
And spirits high with all they have and art 

Of life divine to others freely run, 
And count alone as gain what self-sacrifice has won? 

Can thoughts alone of a noble creed? 

Or professions, church or an honored name? 
Or words divine and not diviner deed? 

Or servant acts without the heart of flame? 

Can splendid gifts of ostentatious fame? 
Or those confessions death has ever known ? 

Or sacraments that never find their aim? 
Or consolations the conscience hard can own? 

Or flowery praise from priests who sell the same? 
Can one or all save when the life high heaven doth disown 
And been a God denying oath to hell's infernal throne ? 

Away with such delusive dreams ! Away ! 

Such gigantic and titanic wickedness 
Before that kingdom stands but for one brief day. 

If deep repenting change finds not express 

In nobler deeds, no mind of truth can guess 
Absorbing souls can rise from whence they fell. 

None dares to dream that love and holiness 
Shall never do what both have dared to tell, 
That whirlwind storms shall of fire shall burst with judg- 
ments fell. 



SOUL SONGS 161 

The tragedy and human life destruction 

That follows their career will gather height 
Until the course its final act shall run; 

Then the everlasting laws, then the might 

Of nature, then the infinite delight 
Of love and righteousness before all ken 

Shall fiercely hurl through lightning thunder night 
The age's curse, the wholesale murdering men, 
Down, down sin's darkest gulf, down where dragons den. 

Oh spirit of this prophetic universe ! 

Hear ! Oh Hear ! and tell me now : Is there a fate 
Conceived for our immortal natures, worse 

Than to be left alone to satiate 

Unmolested the powers that rule the state 
Of life's triumphant selfishness? Oh tell 

Me now ! Do not the righteous heavens dominate 
The future? They answer with a judgment knell 
That prophecies most sure the fact and curse of hell? 



THE YEARS. 



I grieve not what the passing years 

Have touched my mortal frame; 
That disappointment, lose and fears 

Doth my swift spirit tame. 
But Oh I grieve ! I often grieve 

That as they onward flow, 
Though they teach wisdom, yet they leave 

Where they left long ago. 



162 SOUL SONGS 

A CONFLICT. . 

A seasoned salt on voyages both long 
And venturesome, on Afric's ivory shore 
And in Brazilian forests, had seen strong 
And strangest reptiles, birds and beasts. Unrest bore 
Him again across the crystal floor 
Of his loved ocean where ancient cities stand, 
And ever rise still grander than before; 
Where life, wider, higher, more intense is planned, 
And treasures to embellish are brought from every land. 

Discharged, he goes to some near bright saloon 
Whose gilded flashing splendors hide the crime 
And death of life's high boasted state. There soon 
His stifled thirst with merry jokes and rhyme 
He satiates. The liquors from each clime 
He travelled oft now travel through each vein, 
And rushes, jumps and springs, as if sublime 
Immortal life was now within his brain 
And swelling every nerve with joy's ecstatic pain. 

With conscience seared and reason half dethroned, 
And all life powers wild waking from the dead; 
With a delirious sense of strength, as toned 
For those high deeds our dreams to youth have fed, r 
"Fit for mighty exploits both of hand and head, 
If but King Will was stablished on life's throne 
And pure ideals his spirit onward led; 
Oh ! all otherwise he goes ; one whom all disown, 
A ruined god of strength, to be still more o'erthrown. 

Thus on he swings among the moving crowd, 
The mass of whom with demoniac smiles 
"Look round, while some diviner few are bowed 
With shame and tears. But on his way he wiles, 
And each ephemeral sight and sound beguiles 
His steps, until at length he comes where beast 
And bird are caged from mountain, plain and isles : 
His heart is fired, his kindling thoughts now feast 
On memory's distant dreams that swift fly from the east. 



SOUL SONGS 163 

He teases each and joys to see the loud mad 
Strength upon its bars its fury vainly wage. 
At length a glassy box the keeper had 
Left open for a time his eyes engage; 
On coming there his glad delirious rage 
A boa finds in torpid slumber rolled; 
Then like a flash his rope-trained hand did cage 
Its iron fingers round the serpent cold, 
Dragged it forth and held it up, a horror to behold. 

His arm, stiff and strong as a bar of steel, 
Lifts her high and so uncoils her length. He shakes 
Her left and right, and up and down, and wheel 
On wheel, as on the deck his rope he takes 
And with his hand all skillful motion makes. 
Swinging aloft from side to side, he found, 
Since bold success to madness reason breaks, 
From each bold act to bolder he was bound; 
The motions all repeat, above, aside and round. 

Then bending arm and drawing near his face, 
He turns on her the glad and leaping eyes 
His fiery heart and brain with brightness grace. 
His drunken strength doth scornfully despise 
Her sluggish looks and motions. With glee he tries 
To make her move. His boastings loud and quick 
Are farthest from reversal or surprise; 
His curses fall like poisoned arrows thick, 
Upon the serpent's head they gather bright and stick. 

Those iron bands hold in their strongest grasp 
Her wak'ning strength, while quivering lines of pain 
Around her neck his circles would unclasp. 
He smiles in his imperious disdain 
Of that weak creature's strife and struggling strain 
For life. He laughs aloud, and dancing, cries 
For fiendish joy. He spits his spirit's gain 
Within her jaws and on her growing eyes, 
And kicks afar the folds that feet to tangle tries. 



164 SOUL SONGS 

Now full aroused, the serpent from her length 
Doth weakness shake, and its cold, torpid sense 
Afar doth fling. Now repeated shocks of strength 
Shoot up and down and harden most intense 
Her frame. Now her lithe form doth sudden fence 
Itself with electric surcharged coils. Behold 
Those fiercely flashing eyes, scorning from hence 
All former sluggishness ! What lances bold 
Of anger, pride and strength are shot with hate untold ! 

Such transformation and electric thrills 
As gleam and swell the serpent's frame alarms 
His now suspicious soul and sudden stills 
Insanity and drink's delirious charms. 
This lightning sight of death's impending harms 
Doth instant nourish life. His will and hope, 
Deep ancient hate, and horrid fear all arms 
His spirit quick with this new foe to cope, 
With high resolve and prayer life's door anew to ope. 

Oh battle high ! Oh conflict most supreme ! 
Oh strife and strain unknown ! Oh struggle vast 
And strange beyond what all may seem 
To sight! In this embrace now lock the past 
And future as they ne'er before were clasped. 
The highest now engages with the least; 
A spirit of divine celestial cast 
For highest prize now struggles with the least. 
This from beneath in strength each moment is increased 

By low and strong but blind material force. 
This from above, its pure ancestral clime, 
Draws immortality, whose spirits course 
The soul and gird as in unvanquished prime. 
The combat moves in tragedy sublime; 
All natures from life's antithetic spheres 
In sympathy watch this historic time. 
Full oft the snake by subtle secret gears 
Her coils in narrow space, and when she least appears 



SOUL SONGS 165 

With quick recoil and motions swift expands 
Her circles, size and length. That sudden might 
Would burst the grasp of his marmorial hands, 
But he all wise with superhuman sight 
Foresaw the move, and grasping still more tight 
His choking fingers round her neck, did seek 
To strangle her. But life's tenacious right 
Time and again forth from her heart would speak, 
And stronger than before the past would little reak. 

Repeated times she did surcharge each cell 
With mad dynamic life, and fresh anoint 
Her liquid energies with fierce impel 
To find and strike his one unarmored point. 
But he, that one sure stroke that would disjoint 
His spirit from its frame did ever guard, 
And to each swing a motion did appoint 
That broke its force, and did react so hard 
The serpent's frame was stung, and he more ribbed and 
barred. 

On each side of his hand her puffed and vast 
Expanding flanges would she raise; then wind 
Her lengthy coil around his fist and arm with fast- 
Est circling speed, till nerves and muscles twined 
With the cumbrous coils almost unbind 
From her paralysis. Her mass did weight 
His strength, and so her warm electric-wined 
Desire did seek his fingers to unbate, 
That, being free in head, a mortal she might mate. 

But his left hand, iron-fingered and sharp-nailed, 
Swifter and sure than eagle talons wear, 
So instantly, so furiously assailed 
The beast, so 'neath her shining scales would tear 
Into her trembling frame and each time bear 
Away a handful of her flesh, that such wound 
And loss of blood no strength would often dare; 
So swift her length from off his arm unbound, 
While he relaxed again still tighter grasped her round. 



166 SOUL SONGS 

Then from his horizontal arm so strong 
Her shining folds in spirals bright would twine 
Into a pyramidic column. Long 
Straining from her broad and sliding base, a line 
Of constant and discharging strength would pine 
To break the joint of his right-angled arm. 
She strains to plant her fangs. Her spirits shine 
Upon her forked tongue and spits its deadly harm; 
Her electric lightning eyes with her strange nature's charm 

She pierces in his soul, to fascinate 
And conquer by her craft and that disguise 
Which sometimes seems divine. But eye nor hate 
Unharness him in sudden false surprise. 
He drags and breaks her base. Her coils arise 
By his vast lift, or sink beneath his weight. 
The energy of her expanding size 
Of anger he meets as with the strength of fate, 
And on a ragged rock with hopes that rise elate. 

He smites her head; with curses dark did dash 
The slippery, intertwisted frame until 
She was a mangled mass. Her blood did splash 
His naked arms and breast. But can death still 
The unvanquished and unextinguishable will? 
Steaming with foam and fierceness nought could keep 
She stretches out her length to sure fulfill 
Her dying hope. Now with resistless leap 
Her far extending lines in sudden circles sweep 

Upon her foe, and with tremendous shocks 
His body strikes. With unremitting toils 
She ever seeks within her mighty locks 
And knotted chains and complicated coils 
To intervolve his frame. But wisdom spoils, 
And lightning glance and motions quick doth tear 
Asunder all her advantageous moils. 
Should lines or links at any point constrict, there 
His strength so like the sea, puissant, purple, bare, 



SOUL SONGS 167 

Grasps, twists and quick unbinds and breaks 
Her vast involving length. From his arm or thigh 
Or feet his iron fingers tears and shakes 
The dragon with a spirit's granite might. 
In that sustained and unsuspended fight 
The sinews of his strength he doth renew; 
Once more high heaven's first victorious might 
Is flowing in his spirit to endue; 
The victory now is won, the conflict now is through. 

The beast o'ercome or in a moment's faint 
Was motionless and still. A flowing stream 
Of crimson and coagulating blood did paint 
Its path across the spattered grass. The gleam 
Of life was gone, and the warm pulsating steam 
Of agony was borne away. The victor strong 
With spirits new from out the heart of dream 
Bore it around a trophy to his song; 
Its mangled form did fascinate; he held and bore it long. 

Thus his weak pride holds her on high and shows 
The bleeding mass before the shuddering eyes 
Of men, whose sympathetic wisdom throws 
Upon his soul their heaven-appealing cries 
To cast her far. Alas ! Alas ! Despise 
Doth victory the warning voice of fears; 
The angels sent before the soul arise 
And speak God's truth between their blinding tears; 
How often, oh how oft they speak but heart ne'er hears ! 

"Oh cast it far ! That serpent is not slain ! 
'Tis but a moment faint with loss. This rest 
Is gain, and for its last and conquest strain. 
Yes ! even now is gathering strength that breast 
From its own pain all felt but deep suppressed ; 
And from thy heart of low exulting pride 
Is passing thy best power. Yea ! the angels blest 
Which guarded thee and hemmed from every side 
Thy deadly foes unknown now spread their pinions wide. 



168 SOUL SONGS 

"Oh hurl it quick and far ! The gulfs deep 
Satanic presence, influence, power and fate 
Are gathering round, and this delusive sleep 
Will wake. Oh intoxicated pride ! Why wait 
When heaven and hell with eternity's great 
Voice is calling now to cast it and be free? 
Oh fling it far with thy best curse or late, 
Too late the hour and power to cast will be ! 
Her long-concealed strength will wake and conquer thee. 

"This tremendous hour, this concentrated 
Impassioned and last focussed hour of destiny, 
Is but a moment poised. When double-weighted 
With the fate of doubtful immortality, 
How canst thou trifle with thy curse? Oh free 
Thyself forever ! Oh turn thy pride to fear, 
And instant dash this serpent far from thee ! 
Oh haste ! Oh haste ! for heaven's golden sphere — " 
Too late ! Too late ! The beast revives and hope doth 
disappear. 

Most terrified and wrapped in stormy fear, 
Which weakens strength to weakness, he renews 
The courted strife with death's unconquered sphere. 
Some once or more the many-knotted thews 
Of her constricting folds he did abuse 
By his last hope and strength. This strange surprise 
Into his heart new spirit did infuse, 
Beneath the dome of final judgment skies 
To cast his enemy far he oft and vainly tries. 

Thus intervolved, the white intensities 
Of vast tremendous strain, as when heaven and hell 
United in terrific conflict frees 
Upon the soul of man, so now impel 
Each other. The unvanquished beast did tell 
All battle lore, and after other range, 
In circles new, in solid coils, in bell- 
Like hammer strokes, in sudden, subtle change, 
And in new knots of death, mystic, swift and strange. 



SOUL SONGS 169 

New learnings thus her energies increase, 
And in each move still stronger, hard and sure 
She wraps his frame, and prophecies the lease 
Of mortal hope is short. Can he endure 
That foaming anguish? From whence can life secure 
More than purpureal strength ? See ! His eyes 
Are blinded by the blood with which the creature 
Hath besmeared his brow. Oh more than mortal wise ! 
Thy blinded conquered foe is now at last thy prize ! 

Yet once more in desperation's mad 
And frenzied fury, blind concentrated 
Power tore off and dashed the beast; but glad 
And swelling with insanity, the elated 
Serpent's wiry head and satiated 
Eyes of lightning strength unfolds her lengthy coil 
From off his blind and now forever fated 
Soul. Her high victorious heart aboil 
With all her enemy's first delirious rage, doth oil 

Her soul with joy's renewing might. One swing, 
One lightning leap, one terrific hammer stroke, 
One all-involving, most entangling thing, 
Striking this mortal mass, did instant yoke 
His right arm, neck and frame. Ere he awoke, 
Or could resist, or think to do or what, 
In linked folds no mortal hands have broke, 
Round his left thigh and both his feet, her knot 
The serpent instant locks and fells him on the spot. 

Most easy then she quickly wraps her frame 
Of narrowing circles with triumphantness 
Around her foe. Her spirit exultant flame 
Shot through her length as none unbound can guess 
A vast indrawing strain, that did suppress 
Life's last and reflex motions, and the groans 
Of his unconscious or semi-consciousness ; 
A pause, a few short turns, a few cracked bones; 
A dying sigh, and silence on a world of strife and moans. 



170 SOUL SONGS 

And I awoke from that intense behold, 
With deep relief from all that round did press. 
That hour and power the spirit did enfold 
As sorrow breaks the bands of selfishness. 
The high noon sun unseen had grown less; 
The shadows fell; the cold dank filled the air; 
My eyes were wet, my heart filled with distress, 
In seeing borne this victim to her lair 
In darkness unexplored, but where ? Oh, who knows where ? 



WEARY. 



I am not weary with the world, 

Sea, mountain, moon or sun; 
With man, nor with the changes hurled 

Or work that must be done; 
But I am weary of my heart 

Its sin and guilt and grief; 
The passions wide that tear apart, 

But most, my unbelief. 



THE LAST JOURNEY. 

I've travelled up and down the world, 

Around and here and there, 
Just like a chip the stream has whirled 

To where? Oh who cares where? 
But one more journey I will go, 

Soon one more journey make, 
When to the grave I travel slow 

And of its rest partake. 



SOUL SONGS 171 

PROGRESS. 



Oh World ! Oh Life ! Oh Time ! 
Oh trinity that chime 

The happy bells ! Oh happy bells of birth ! 
When we descend from heaven's azure clime 

And enter into earth. 

Up! Up the future's slope 
Ye nurture us with hope ! 

Oh what a host of shining dreams divine 
Doth blind us blind, as in the light we grope 

With passions drunk with wine! 

Oh World ! Oh Time ! Oh Life ! 
Why with a lightning knife 

Is that dream world in youth's delighted eyes 
Like Sodom rained? and ruin, blight and strife 

Around the journey lies. 

On ! On ! No stop, but change ! 
No turn but onward range ! 

More heavy weights, more pain and blinding tears 
Affect the heart, till open up most strange 

Some new discovered spheres. 

Oh Life ! Oh Time ! Oh World ! 
Though scorned and wreck-like hurled 

Ye turn the loss into transcendant gain ; 
For higher spheres with golden gates impearled 

Shine on the heart and brain. 

Out of our grief and fears 
We look unto the years; 

Ourselves we know, and know ye mortal three, 
The friends disguised, for your harsh kindness rears 

In us eternity. 



172 SOUL SONGS 

Oh World ! Oh Life ! Oh Time ! 
Oh Trinity sublime ! 

Ye nurse us first, give and destroy our dreams ; 
Show the ideal; and build manhood to rhyme 

With heaven and its themes. 

Three faithful, faithful friends 
Working to vastest ends ! 

Work on ! Work on against this course of crime ! 
Once ye were cursed ; but curse to blessing bends, 

Oh World ! Oh Life ! Oh Time ! 



DECEPTION. 



"The world converted in this generation !" 
How dark thrones deception and elation 

Cast on bright minds though by the ages taught ! 
Sublimest truths in splendor they enshroud, 
And rainbow lies gleam from the bannered cloud 

As to allure the princes of high thought 
From truth, to sound a vain and moment's boast 
And with such hopes deceive the sacramental host. 

Could aught but dream, or night's distempered brain, 
Or reason tottering on her throne insane, 

Or dotaged memory, murmuring of her youth, 
Rave of the church's power to save the world? 
Could aught but hell's infatuation, whirled 

On by the falsest spirit of untruth 
Through some dark night, or solid-coned eclipse, 
Deny the light of heaven and truth on life's own lips? 



SOUL SONGS 173 

Oh first deceit ! The last and darkest birth 

Of night's unfathomed gulf has sprung on earth, 

And blinds the eyes of her high prophet race ! 
What spirit speaks? What charms of death infernal 
Thus veil our eyes from life and truth eternal? 

Oh Thou divine, majestic splendored face ! 
Oh countenance of pure effulgent light ! 
Dost Thou still shine on earth before our mortal sight ? 

Oh holy light ! Oh uneclipsed sun ! 
To-day undimmed as when life first begun 

Thou rollest forth a flood of living splendors. 
One moment in Thy presence, when Thy light 
Bursts from Thy soul in its effulgence bright, 

Reveals the dark and all its hid attenders, 
Then once again descend from heights above, 
And undeceive the heart with brightest beams of love. 

But not unto this dark and sinking world 
Of hoary crime, whose populations, whirled 

On and blinded by the driving storms of 
Greed and strife and death, beholdest not Thy face, 
Oh not to these the splendors of Thy grace 

Reveal ! for Thy own radiant form of love 
Was crucified and nailed toward heaven in scorn, 
And be as once again, again it must be borne. 

But on this church, whose long delusive dreams 
Of fitful, phosphorescent paleness, gleams 

Like morning lights of golden purity 
Upon their blinded sight, oh now unburst 
The brightness of Thy being ! It, from all immersed 

In sleep of sin which pure lights never see, 
Will drive false dreams, and with a swift surprise 
Will burn new visions deep upon the spirit's eyes. 



174 SOUL SONGS 

Oh what a sight for heaven's new-opened eyes ! 
Against Thine azure purities arise 

A million forms of ebony selfishness. 
This worst of all disease upon each face 
Of unimpassioned power doth daily trace 

Prophetic signs no mortal can suppress. 
Who can behold these signs which strong men tremble 
And life and light and truth to his own soul dissemble? 

Where is the image of heaven's eternal king 

Of beauty? Where the dazzling lights that wing 

From faintest sign of his all perfect form ? 
Where is the faith? Where is the golden speech 
Of prayer? Where are the flaming songs that reach 

The broken heart of sorrow? Where the warm 
Pulsating and all vitalizing love 
That sacrifices all in acts like his above? 

Behold those brows ! Tragic, prophetic faces, 
Where sin and her unconscious guilt entraces 

Lines to God the most unlike. Behold how pride 
Lifts up each countenance with scorn ! How hate 
And lust and greed and pleasure satiate , 

And cruel ambition, how they all are dyed 
In mingled blood of their own hearts, no less 
Than of the murdered heart of murdering selfishness ! 

Dark discontent, rebellious unbelief, 
O'ershadowing fear and low consuming grief 

Dark curtains draw when darker things have play. 
Hosts of dishonored vows and withering scorns 
Of truth and love the Christ again enthorns 

With greater guilt than that dark-annaled day. 
By deeds, not words, another Calvary 
Of his and their own souls the prophet eyes can see. 



SOUL SONGS 175 

Beneath these forms what mockery of life ! 
How cold and still to that eternal strife 

Grace doth sustain with all the powers of sin ! 
Oh what celestial poles from love divine, 
That lives and works with Calvary's glorious sign 

Of vast unselfishness on hands and heart within ! 
How strange to life ! How like to death ! What dreams 
Of doubt and scorn and fear a granite charnel streams ! 

Behold these lives ! How fair ! but under, leprous 
And eaten deep, till like an ulcerous 

Moving mass of worse than putrid death 
Upon itself and all things that are round 
Contagion flows; while living germs abound 

Both near and far. A deadly laden breath 
Upon this mortal struggling mass is blown, 
And millions die from those who should the life of life have 
sown. 

Can such a church convert the world to Christ? 
Physician heal thyself ! Heaven's balms unpriced 

Scorn heathen souls while thou diseased so art : 
The wise will say : "The world within our day ! 
Oh convert the church ! The frame must stay 

Upon a vital rich sustaining heart." 
The very wise : "A converted church must wait 
A converted ministry, and that, a professoriate." 



176 SOUL SONGS 

FIT TO LIVE. 

To-day I stood 'mid the obsequious rites 

Of one advanced to three score ripest years. 
His manhood powers had blossomed on the heights 

Of life, and underneath him were the spheres 
Of inexperience, of ignorance and tears. 

The loss and grief around his honored name 
Not only moved the ties that time endears, 

But with a strength of sympathy did claim 
A large community. Death's unrelenting shears 

Did sever him from all, just as the aim 
Of all his life was reached and he was crowned with fame. 

For he was one who filled conspicuous place 

In the affairs, labor and thought of men ; 
He was a city's pillar and a grace 

Before the eyes of aspiration's ken. 
He rose by long laborious toil and when 

His place was won the virtue of his days 
Unfolded like a flower within a pen. 

Poverty and prosperity did raise 
His character above this earthly fen 

But not to God. Jealousy restrained its praise, 
But the wise were free to sigh in pious thoughtful ways. 

"How strange it seems that life should be so brief 

And all is o'er when we have reached the place 
Where we partake the virtue of our grief, 

And wear the armor with which age doth lace 
Our spirit's passions ! Yes ! Just when we can face 

The battle with self-control and patience: 
When foresight, wisdom, skill and sacrifice embrace 

With labor, courage, promptitude, endurance: 
Just as we are fit to run our mortal race 

Then that blind hand bereft of living sense 
Doth strike us to the earth as cold and hard and dense." 



SOUL SONGS 177 



"Man is just fit to live when he must die; 

The blind impetuosity of youth doth pass 
Before the soul that cometh from on high; 

But scarcely has it come, and the magic glass 
Doth cast its inspiration pictures, when alas ! 

Alas ! life's hope and at its golden prime 
Is stricken down to mingle with the grass; 

Is stricken down and the highest worth of time 
Sinks sheer from sight in death's unfed crevasse, 

As to be fit to live were but a crime 
And those high virtues nought that maketh life to chime.' 



Hark ! Hark ! Is a man fit to live because 

The labor virtues of life's selfishness 
Have triumphed and been organized to laws 

That rule these earthly elements that press 
Upon and in us? Do those habits that dress 

Life's latter years with regularity and 
Give equipoise to age so passionless? 

Or those restraining powers that have command 
Upon us in positions of success? 

Do these harmonize with yon celestial land 
And liken us to God in all from heart to hand ? 



Oh how much that bears the stamp of virtue 

Is nothing more than gilded selfishness ! 
What revelations when life's lightnings through 

And through us pierce, and God's eternities press 
Into heart and mind ! Dare the blindest guess 

That virtue lives in hearts motived by self * 

Though with a famed benevolence they dress? 

Or that qualities that rule the spheres of pelf 
Can stand the hour when judgments all express? 

Such things and more can move the lords of wealth 
And not so much as touch virtue or spirit health. 



178 SOUL SONGS 



He alone has right, alone is fit to live 

Who findeth God without and in his heart, 
And unto him in most unselfish motive 

As to another his being doth impart. 
A sense of him that blinds this earthly mart, 

A trust supreme, a love that is the sire 
Of most immortal deeds, a magic art 

That even here can heaven's air inspire 
And see the lines of his celestial chart; 

He alone is fit to live, and his desire 
Shall mount the spheres of life forever rising higher. 



Plant such a soul in any circumstance 

Or up or down life's strange unbalanced scale : 
Take what thou wilt that does the heart entrance 

And add the ill which strongest mortals pale: 
Mingle anew the elements that sail 

Around him, or plant him into any state 
At either pendulum extreme, nor fail 

To swiftly change the externalities that mate 
With virtue and seem her coat of mail : 

A spirit such is soon adjusted straight 
And with the life divine is fully satiate. 



Plant him in the very heart of those vast 

Immortal splendors, purities and powers 
That rule the universe, or o'er him cast 

Some living dream the Infinite endowers : 
What praise and admiration before those towers 

Upon the height of life ! What services 
To greatness would sanctify the hour 

And situation ! What supersensual bliss 
Of love and aspiration would devour 

His passioned heart with white intensities ! 
And tidal streams of life would pass from all to his ! 



SOUL SONGS 179 



Cast him 'mid hell's chaotic and rebellious 

Host of blaspheming and crucifying crime 
Against the Christ within the virtuous: 

There right before the Devil's throne, what prime 
And proudest majesty, with sublime 

Prophetic voice of thunder tone would smite 
Those powers with condemnation ! That clime 

Of blackest guilt and sin's unbroken night 
Would be as when some electric soul of time 

Doth flash and flash with sheets or bolts of white, 
The burning purities of love and life and light. 



See yon chaotic world wide swinging there 

Upon creation's farthest bound ! What need 
Of pure self-sacrifice, of faith and prayer 

And every act that love can ever feed ! 
Were here he placed his heart would daily bleed 

Its crimson tears, and fresh celestial might 
Would rise within as the Divine did breed 

A world-sustaining love, that did delight 
To take that globe as its own living seed ; 

Would take the globe and out of starless night 
Would nurse it up to God and noonday splendors bright. 



Or plant him here where these extremest powers 

Are present, mingled, and with contentious fray 
Immortal make the evenescent hours : 

The adoration, self-sacrifice and day- 
Condemnations of the night display 

His symmetry and passion rounded heart; 
One life, one law, one principle has sway 

With infinite direction and doth impart 
All energy and harmony. A lay 

Of blessedness the times could never bart 
To heaven, earth and hell unvanquished measures start. 



180 SOUL SONGS 



Live on oh soul ! Oh son of faith and God ! 

For thou alone of all the earth doth live. 
All else is death, although they be the laud 

And inheritors of all that time can give. 
Thou only hast a course with an ascensive 

Sweep unto the summit of celestial height. 
Thou shall find the universe preservative 

Of thee its hope. All its energies of might 
Both of the underived and the deriv- 

Ation shall nurse thee with supreme delight, 
And forever bear thee high beyond the noonday's sight. 



SIGHT. 



When I was young ! When I was young ! 

My soul was always dreaming! 
Bright airy visions on me sprung, 

Unreal and summer seeming. 
Now I am old ! Now I am old ! 

I have a finer seeing; 
No more the dreams do I behold, 

But truth and life and being. 



DONALD'S ANSWER. 



I asked: "Do men better grow and rise 

To higher moral levels?" 
"Better ! Boys grow men with wicked size 

And men grow damned old devils." 



SOUL SONGS 181 



HELL FIRE. 



Oh Thou Spirit of Fire ! Oh Thou Spirit of Fire ! 
Thou nature of passion and deepest inspire ! 
Thy essence divine and thy high purity 
Enchanteth the heart into union with thee. 

Thou enchanteth the heart and it draweth most near; 
Thou enchanteth the heart, but it standeth in fear; 
For fire without law is the swiftest destroy 
Of the agents or forces that man can employ. 

But all the destroy, the destroy thou hast done 
From the center of earth to the height of the sun, 
Is lost and eclipsed by what thou hast been 
As a symbol to man of the nature of sin. 

There, there is a world without orbit or law; 
Such a one, only one has the system e'er saw; 
The dark starless void that engirdeth her path 
Is plowed by her curse and consumed by her wrath. 

There is fire in her heart, there is fire in her breast, 
There is fire in her bones and the flesh they have dressed; 
There is fire in her air and her sky, cloud and wind, 
Fresh lightning and fire-rain forever unbind. 

There spirits immortal right out of her bowels 
Are torn with an anguish and agony's howls; 
For in them is born such a fearful desire 
As teareth the soul with the hungers of fire. 

The spirits there born they are fed on the fire; 
They draw it from nature and mother and sire; 
Down, down from their sky and up, up from their earth, 
Comes the fierce driven blast and the fuel for such birth. 



182 SOUL SONGS 

When they grow to their youth there is hunger and greed 
For the fire that was theirs and but salted their feed. 
They reveal what they are and all creatures they eat 
With the hungers of flame and the ardors of heat. 

In the height of their strength they yearn for the glow 
Which the nature of fire and the furnace bestow; 
Then all that they are and all that they rule 
And the strong-driven blast is their glad-given fuel. 

Oft, oft in their age still is hungry desire 

For baptisms new in new rivers of fire. 

"Oh deepen the bath and Oh quicken its strength !" 

Is often the cry of their age's full length. 

Since men in the symbols of senses must think, 
And out of these cups all his knowledge first drink, 
The image now turn for it pictures forth sin, 
There is no fire without, but all fire is within. 

Their world is as bright as our splendors of dawn; 
Their fields are as green as our grass-growing lawn; 
Their skies are as blue as the deep of our noon; 
And their night is as rich as our stars and our moon. 

Sin, sin is the fire, and a nature of fire 

No sinner or saint can with image attire. 

It is spark ! It is flame ! It is glow ! It is fuel ! 

Consuming ourselves and all kingdoms we rule. 

See the lust of the flesh ! How the blood in us burns ! 
And the high laws of life and their Giver it spurns. 
Their youth, strength and beauty with frenzied desire 
They plunge without thought to the greed of the fire. 

It burns in the heart and the brain and the eyes; 
Consuming itself if the other denies; 
Consuming them both with the swiftest desire 
As their beings keep feeding the passions of fire. 



SOUL SONGS 183 

It brandeth the brow with the foulest of shame ; 
It mantles the cheek with a red-hot flame; 
It filleth the blood and the bones till they burn 
And a leperous heap is the ash in the urn. 

See the pride of our life ! What a radiant glow 
Around and before and beneath them they throw ! 
A spirit electric with passionate scorn 
Of all that in heaven and earth may be born. 

The ambitious fire of the great doth devour 

Their front, stay and strength; their fame, place and 

power; * 
Nought, nought on the earth stays the fierceness of sin 
Consuming our "might be" as well as "have been." 

The gifted and great on the pathway to fame, 
They are more on our night than a splendor of flame; 
A heart and a mind, where the forces of life 
In the conflicts of hell are forever at strife. 

See the pleasures of life, what a furious fire 
So lawlessly raging for larger require ! 
Consuming the host, both the old and the young 
By the instant devour of the fuel to it flung. 

It consumeth the earth, it mounteth on high ; 
It casteth its flames on the clouds of the sky; 
The host, Oh the host and all kingdoms that be, 
They are feeding the fire as the blindest can see ! 

A crackle and flash with a moment of flame 
And a spirit of life has gone out of the game ; 
Nor cinder nor ash nor even a trace 
Of a "Fourth of July" can be found in his place. 

See the anger and hate ! What explosion of wrath, 
And a lightning swift bolt as they burn out their path ! 
Strife, anguish and death, and a being insane 
As the nethermost boils in the heart and the brain. 



184 SOUL SONGS 

Man, woman and child, the strong, feeble and sick 
Are instantly burned to their spirit's deep quick; 
And the atmosphere round with contagion is hot, 
And singeth all life like a black, barren blot. 

If the spirits are scorched that encircle them round, 
How more their own soul where these passions abound? 
What a blasting and blight for the heart and the mind, 
And dangers ahead from the magazine blind ! 

See the traffic in drink ! What distilled liquid hell 
Is made and is licensed and sold where we dwell? 
A river of fire that all boundary o'erflows, 
Devouring at once both its friends and its foes. 

A river of fire to an ocean of flame, 
It flows and its freight are the nations of shame; 
And it waters the lives that are ruined and cursed, 
And its fountain's the votes that the traffic has nursed. 

What a death-poisoned heart ! What a fire-maddened 

brain ! 
What homes and what families and hosts have been slain ! 
Could man in his curse and his vengeance inspire 
Such a furnace of wrath? Such a furious fire? 

See the money-mad greed ! What an infinite fire ! 
With the passion and strength and the fiercest desire 
That is born in the heart, in the hunger of gold, 
And quickly expands till the world cannot hold. 

Every day we can see on the wide open street 
The furnace all white with the glow of the heat; 
And man taketh man like a shovel of coal 
And shovels him in for the money in toll. 

And even the women and children like ore 
Are thrown in the fire if but gold they will pour. 
Oh God of the heavens and angels behold 
This fire, fiercest fire from the hunger of gold ! 



SOUL SONGS 185 

Such mingled and deadly and spiritual fire, 
Is deep in the heart of all sinful desire ; 
And sinful desire in all mortals doth dwell, 
The very same fire as in devils in hell. 

Behold the wide earth ! What a funeral stool ! 
Where the living are burned by their own given fuel. 
What ashes and cinders around of consumed ! 
And what infinite more in the earth is entombed ! 

Oh hell ! Hungry hell ! All creation doth dwell 
Before thee with a pause that no silence can tell ! 
Thy serpents and pain, thy curse, fire and force, 
Is sin in its triumph and full on its course. 

Yon, yonder is God 'mid the splendors that blind 
Both the white glowing heart and more glowing mind ; 
Though his heart overflows with a mother's desire 
'Gainst sin he reacts with an infinite ire. 

Oh sin is a fire ! Oh sin is a fire ! 

That burns on the earth and all spirits inspire; 

All sinful aversion, all sinful desire 

Makes ourselves and the earth and the universe fire. 

'Gainst self and her sin ; Oh, forever 'gainst sin ! 
Is the universe built both without and within. 
Her material frame and her spiritual powers 
Both the sin and the sinner most instant devours. 

Sin is fire for the mind. Sin is fire for the heart. 
Sin is fire for the flesh and for all that thou. art. 
Sin is blasting and curse and consuming desire, 
Worse, worse than all dreams of the unbridled fire. 

Sin is fire for thee here. Sin is fire for thee there, 
Through all space and all time and all states that we share. 
Sin is fire down in hell from whence we all fly, 
But a thosuand times more round the Holy and High. 



186 SOUL SONGS 

I was born in the fire. I have lived in the same; 
I have felt in and round me the merciless flame. 
Yet Oh God of all grace ! let Thy grace greater reign ! 
And Thy father heart hear a new prayer in my pain. 

Oh save me from sin ! Oh save me from sin ! 
From all that is without but far more from within ! 
Do just what Thou wilt; nought, nought grace desires, 
But salvation from sin — sin the soul of all fires. 



DAMN THE POLICE. 



When now and then some mighty tragedy 

Of vast proportioned elements on its heights 
Of wealth and power and famed society, 

Shakes the nation's sensibility, smites 
Her mad insanity for money, rights 

Her nature's deep irreverence till shame 
And fear and grief upon the conscience lights 

Restoring moral reasonings and the blame 
Of God's eternal judgments swift trembles through her 

frame : 



When some fashionable and adulterous 

Beauty, whose strange enchantments chain mankind 
Is slain on the unsatiated voluptuous 

Couch of sensuality, and her blind 
Paramour in desperation has consigned 

Himself to violent death and to disgrace, 
Oh such disgrace time never can unbind ! 

A dozen families and friends of wide embrace 
Most sensitive to shame which they must daily face: 



SOUL SONGS 187 

When the instant investigating press 

Doth asunder most unmercifully tear 
Society's silken curtains that dress 

The dark and deed no light could ever dare, 
And nations with a blank astonishment stare 
At a thousand shadowy scandals that hide 
Their trembling frame from the hands that would 
them bare; 
From hands that show corruptions sure supplied 
From hell's congested sewers and the powers that there 
abide : 

Then the alien unprophetic souls 

That usurp the grandest office of all time 
Awake. As an indignant public rolls 

Their elemental judgments on its crime 
They awake and rise to being's most sublime 

And godlike power and passion. The azure skies 
Of infinite purity and the prime 

Effulgent lightnings of the eternal eyes 
Blaze forth in majesty when in the church they rise. 

Then speaking like a god of infinite 

Self-righteousness they scatter judgments through 
The earth. The times and forces in it, 

The laws and powers and institutions that do 
Their service, the impersonals and new 

Impulsions of the age-spirit, all things 
But those that nurse these tragedies we view 

Their passion strikes, and their simulation flings 
High heaven's lightning bolts on bright and splendored 
wings. 

Their full diapason of execration 

Strikes the police. On their unsheltered heads 
Sinai uncaps her whitest indignation. 

Earthquake's subterranean thunders plow their beds 
In the world's fiery heart. The hungry gulf speds 

Its unsatiated fierceness after such. 
Unfaithful guardians of the law it weds 

With untensity and vengeance over much, 
And sendeth forth its flames that arm-like it them clutch. 



188 SOUL SONGS 

The preachers as if by preconcerted 

Action take a golden trumpet from the wall 
Of Zion and on the God deserted 

Officers of law they simultaneous call: 
"Damn the police ! Damn the police ! Oh all 

Ye powers of heaven and earth and hell, damn the 
police !" 
Their echoes fill time's reverberating hall 

For just a single moment, and release 
A host of dying whispers which soon forever cease. 

Then gradually they go to sleep again 

And society goes on in all its crime. 
They go to sleep and some dare dream that men 

Rise up divine and unto heaven climb. 
They mumble the dead platitudes of time 

And for the living God within the heart 
Substitute science, poetic scraps, the chime 

Of music, the ritual ornaments of art, 
And the white-washed self, and the gold of mine and mart. 

Soon another tragedy wakes the world. 

Another gifted and immortal spirit 
Is like a meteor from heaven's height hurled 

To the abyss that is forever near it. 
Instantly from their slumbers when they hear it 

They arise and shout their accumulated curse 
Again upon the undeserved police, 

For that which their own faithlessness doth nurse, 
And which while what they are will grow still worse and 
worse. 

Yes ! The police are unfaithful to the law : 

But tell me : Are these moral diletantists 
Any more faithful to the solemn awe, 

Truth and ideal that crowd the golden vistas 
Of eternity and crown the azure palaces 

Of heaven? Where is the zeal commensurate 
With the heights and infinite purities 

That rule the spheres in everlasting state? 
And what dream they of these while platitudes they prate. 



SOUL SONGS 189 

Unfaithful prophets are the greatest curse 

That ever strikes a nation. They bear the first 
Responsibility of that sad reverse 

Of morals that destroys the sacred thirst 
For faith and truth. Such men are surely cursed 

By that great voice that thunders from the towers : 
"Cursed be he, in death and hell immersed, 

Who breeds deceit within God's image, and showers 
The mingled true and false upon man's doubtful hours." 

This is the point where eternity 

Breaks into time. When dark and deep immersed 
In time how can the high supernity 

Of holiness shine through them and create a thirst 
In man. Should the Hebrew spirit burst 

Into the church with but a partial power 
The guilty self and the one supremely cursed; 

But from that curse the prophets rise to tower 
The guardians of all life against monsters that devour. 

Oh for the sake of coming generations 

For God's sake and the church's trampled fame 
Give us a few men ! Oh let the grandest stations 

On the globe vomit forth in deadly shame 
These prophets, that bear not now even the name 

Of a living god ! Oh ye men of fire ! 
Incarnations robed in consuming flame 

And breathing forth his infinite inspire ! 
Come ! Mount again thy place, is the wide world's deep 
desire ! 

Preach the inflexibility of right, 

That would damn the universe ere decline 
An iota from true perfection's height. 

There is nought within creation worth a pine 
But holiness, and only thou in all the line 

Of history hast ever taught the heart its sin. 
Thou alone knowest no images can sign 

In fiercest fire the awful hells within 
These principles that rule the world without and in. 



190 SOUL SONGS 

But be unite with that self-sacrifice 

That on the hell-ward side of man has stood 
Against their suicide; which when it dies 

Before the infuriated multitude 
Doth rise with love divine and unsubdued 

To breast the broad and crowded ways of sin. 
Have thou the love that o'er the world can brood, 

For holiness and love can ever win 
The vilest hearts of hell and God enthrone within. 

Come ! Ye are the world's most immortal race ! 

Ye know nought great but greatness of the good; 
Your base and height and strength is sovereign grace 

Whose vital voice is not by men withstood. 
Oh breathe they passion on this dead mortalhood ! 

Till the divine in man be quickened and arise 
To front life's "should" and their rebellious "would." 

Oh breathe thy passion ! until repentant sighs 
Rise up the darkened night and pierce the promised skies. 

Oh living God supreme ! Shall this last age, 

The greatest that has ever swept the course 
Of time and life, shall it not Thee engage 

As anciently? Our desperate need doth force 
The spirit's travailing prayer. Thou art the source 

Of all salvation exploits and On baptize 
With pentecost this more than mortal corse 

Without Thee ! Men of fire, the fire that tries 
Us like the judgment day, men that unhorse 

All hell and march in victory to the skies, 
Such prophets to us send us the wide world's dying cries ! 



SOUL SONGS 191 

THE DEPARTED. 



Oh Maid! Beloved Maiden! 

Oh Spirit most divine! 
Oh heart within the Aiden 

For you I ever pine! 
Since thou has far departed 

And left me here alone, 
I have been broken hearted 

And would be with a throne. 

I pine and weep in sorrow, 

I suffer and would fain 
From all around me borrow 

Some balsam for my pain. 
But what chalice from the fountain 

Revives the dying breath? 
What hope when o'er the mountain 

Our love has gone with death? 

The highest hopes of mortals 

Were gathered up in thee; 
The future's golden portals 

Were bright as bright could be; 
The joys the most divinest 

That ever filled the heart, 
Were in thy own enshrinest 

And all to me did part. 

Thy spirit pure and stainless 

Did cleanse me white as snow; 
In thee secure and chainless 

I thought to ever grow. 
Thy love within me burning 

Did circle round like fire, 
And kindled daily yearning 

To all of high desire. 



192 SOUL SONGS 



Thy countenance and fashion 

Ideals did inspire, 
And fed them with the passion 

Of pure celestial fire. 
In thee was all the beauty 

For which we mortals thirst 
When love inspirits duty 

And into actions burst. 

But now these hopes have vanished, 

Those joys forever dead; 
The love in exile banished 

Ideals far have fled. 
The morning has no glory, 

The springtime has no light, 
The poet has no story, 

All is night, the blackest night. 

As the brightest meteor splendor 

Dies in a swift eclipse, 
So died all these my tender 

On thy cold icy lips. 
They died when then I kissed thee, 

Thou soul out of my soul ! 
And since the hour I missed thee 

Darkness doth round me roll. 

They spread for thee the pillow; 

They covered thee with mould; 
The murmuring weeping willow 

New sorrow will unfold. 
But thy grave it not yonder 

Where tears the flowers start; 
Wherever I may wander 

Thy grave is in my heart. 



nv~ 



SOUL SONGS 193 

This heart it is the sorest 

Of stream or wind or trees, 
Of all that in the forest 

In sighing seeks for ease. 
Though sweetest flowers bound it 

And birds their music fling, 
The memories that surround it 

Can nought but sorrow sing. 

Oh I would love thee maiden 

While time and tide shall run ! 
While in thy spirit's Aiden 

Shall shine on thee the sun ! 
And when its golden splendor 

Will fade and die away, 
Thy memory would be tender 

And green as is to-day. 

Thee would I love as fountains 

Soft silver tinkling sounds; 
As splintered granite mountains 

The peace of their surrounds; 
As soundless, soundless oceans 

The azure purity; 
And as the best devotions 

Of man eternity. 

But since thou hast departed 

The strength of life has fled; 
My hope is broken hearted 

And bled and bled and bled. 
I cannot follow after, 

Nor dream or dare or do, 
When weakness mocks with laughter 

All effort to be true. 



194 SOUL SONGS 

I am falling, falling, falling, 

I am sinking, sinking down; 
I am calling, calling, calling, 

Nor answer find but frown. 
Black, black the clouds that screen us, 

Spirit of purity: 
Vast, vast the gulf between us 

My sinful heart can see. 



Farewell beloved maiden ! 

Farewell spirit divine ! 
Though sin and sorrow laden 

I would not burden thine. 
Farewell beloved maiden ! 

Oh soul out of my soul ! 
Go on within thy Aiden 

Though the storms around me roll. 



NEED, GREED AND MEED. 



How small our need ! A little dress, 

A little bread, 
A little shelter from the weather's stress 

And life is fed. 

How large our greed ! Can earth fill all 

Our selfish dream? 
Abuse we gifts that God lets fall 

Yet him blaspheme. 

What is our meed? A rugged grave, 

A simple flower, 
A memory dear some heart doth save 

For one short hour. 



SOUL SONGS 195 

A WORLD SIGH. 

Oh Love ! thou art the spirit most divine 
Of all existing being. Thy presence fills 
The universe, and is the heart that wills 
All-life. The green and golden globes that shine 
And lamp the void are fed with living wine 
From thy celestial breast and glance. 
Such motions, majesty and lance 
Of brightest splendors as forever kills 

The undevout and prides that stream 
In man, Oh, who could ever dream 
Such beauty, power and harmony divine 
Could be and be sustained by any heart but thine ! 

But in this world — Oh is it here alone? 
Of all the million multiplied spheres that hail 
Thy gifts — thy name and nature are in veil, 
As if a solid starless night was thrown 
Across the summer sun, and earth was blown 
A source of wint'ry selfishness. 
The elemental natures that dress 
Her living soul with ocean, sky and vale, 

And scarce the scars upon her heart 
Conceal with all their magic art, 
Bear witness with their murmuring looks and lips 
Thy heart and countenance, Oh Love ! are in eclipse. 

Thus veiled from thee the unguardianed earth doth 
sweep 
Her path among the constellated spheres 
As a dishonor among the kingly peers 
Of heaven's host. To them she is a heap 
Of most chaotic ruins. Within her deep 
What titanic elements of life 
Are locked in their convulsive strife ! 
What tempest wrath and lightning bolt appears ! 
What earthquake, volcano and cyclone 
Her bosom oft has rent and thrown ! 
What sweeping flood, frost, drought and hungry flame 
The green-embosomed earth destroy or lasting maim ! 



196 SOUL SONGS 

Some withering blast is on the herbless field; 
Some unseen ill eats at the forest's core; 
Some spirit wars in beasts and birds for gore; 
Some poisons too the fountains have unsealed; 
All beasts and things announce the unrepealed 
Curse on the earth. From nature's heart 
Without the touch and time of art 
No flower or fruit reach use or beauty's door. 

Why should the beasts and powers of life 
Have no high end but warring strife? 
Earth from her heart to the splintered mountain peaks 
In polyphonic voice the woes of judgment speaks. 

Dowered thus she swings along her course 
And through the void utters her solemn dirge; 
For all she is, has been and would be, surge 

Her heart and frame with deep, voluminous force 
And echoes far away. These thunders hoarse 
Doth strike her sister wedded spheres, 
Doth fall on their harmonious ears 
As sin discords in heaven's song emerge. 
With silent awe, uncertain fears, 
Each listens whence the sound appears. 
Oh what a drawn-out diapason curse 
To echo from our sphere throughout the universe ! 

The long generations of her mortal 
Sons whose destiny is but to find a birth 
And faith and fellowship above the earth, 

Then quick to pass beyond the shadowed portal 
To join the hosts forever more immortal: 
What glancing eye of heart or mind 
Beholds that line and is not blind 
With grief, as when death falls on lover's mirth? 
To see the loved and best created 
With sense and sins and shadows mated; 
To see not faith nor nature's faint belief, 
Astounds angelic ranks and burdens them with grief. 



SOUL SONGS 197 

Oh our human nature is disorganized 
From all creation ! It is antithetic 
To humanity, to the rich prophetic 

Skies, to nature's fabric, to its God devised 
Constitution and the idealized 
Virtues and Divine inspires 
To wake and feed our best desires . 
The conscience is dethroned and heretic 
Sense's dark impulsive power 
Is rebel to the spirit's dower. 
All gifts have some lack, fullness or alloy 
As failures certain makes, embitter and destroy. 

Yes ! Yes ! In the far ancestral founts of life 
Some mystery dark was introduced that lives 
From sire to son, and a field for ruin gives 
God's workmanship with potencies most rife. 
This strange mephitic element with strife 
Has poisoned every heart and brain, 
And often God's last blessing, pain. 
Our quintessential essence, the motives, 
From uncreated virtues bent, 
And fell in that same steep descent 
As the primal godlike purities that fell 
From heaven's right hand thrones to the fire-locked gulfs of 
hell. 

Some spirit of that dark, infernal region 
Seems still at work, and pours satanic power 
On this descent by which they swift devour 
The heritage of hope. Diverse and legion 
The inspiration which she doth endower, 
So each from his high destined end 
And from his brother's good doth bend. 
All reasonless by blind infatuation 

The human bands and brotherhoods, 
Are severed and new multitudes 
Of deadly strifes spring up each day to birth, 
With power and hate and death to all of right and worth. 



198 SOUL SONGS 

What a field for strife is the human soul ! 
Though to all eyes and oft to self unknown, 
Two worlds of life and death have there been thrown 
For mastery. There in the darkness roll 
The resistless powers that guard each moral pole 
Of this dynamic universe. 
Beings of blessings and of curse 
Contend there oft, whom man may full disown; 

But most, self with himself and gifts of power 
Contend or suffer or devour. 
Sense and soul, might and right, real and ideal, 
Sweep his heart with changing woe but never lasting weal. 

The heart is the first battle field ; the first 
Instrument of death the thought within the fist; 
And the first cause is man's high pride when hissed 
By stronger power or stronger selfish thirst 
That scorns all laws and to its end has burst. 
No need of outer worlds to stir 
The elements of hate and murder, 
Since all powers within encrouch and all resist. 
But when another world so like 
To this doth on her bosom strike, 
More deadly strifes spring instant up to birth 
And sweep in frenzied war across anarchic earth. 

Oh War ! War ! War ! Oh outward and embodied state 
Of man's own nature ! The unregenerate man 
Has all the elements of war's infernal ban 
In his vile heart. His selfishness and hate 
Sleeps not nor feeds till they annihilate 

Obstructs of pride and power and greed. 
Defenceless weak, unarmored need 
Are gloated o'er with eyes of murderous scan. 
The armies and the navies often seem, 
And often seem to be no dream 
As giant men whom trifles disengage 
And elemental furies within and round them rage. 



SOUL SONGS 199 

What histories hast thou written on the earth 
Of fiery force and vengeance, blood and lust ! 
Oh what destroy from grandeur unto dust 
Of most men are and all they hold of worth ! 
Which of the long generations whose birth 
Was not eclipsed by thee and thine? 
Which of the years that long untwine 
Was not with stain, deep, crimson stain out thrust? 
What nations never pained and bowed 
When thee and thine together crowd? 
What nations never loud, jubilant and free 
When thou in chains were thrust as hell's hound ought to be ? 

Oh inhuman war ! Oh infernal birth ! 
Thou transformest earth to hell and revels 
Man as drunken, mad and thrice damned devils 

In blood and death, in rapine, fire and lust. The earth 
Could bear the cost and count it more then worth 
If thou couldst meet an equal mate 
And each the foe annihilate. 
All know beneath life's sun-kissed highland levels 
Wars have their source and leave their stain 
On the lust of pride and power and gain. 
Oh war ! as thou the throat of death has crammed 
Thy spirit, works and lore forever deep be damned ! 

Still thou shalt be, for to-day the nations groan 
Beneath deep marshaled ranks and armaments 
That public fear alone from broil prevents. 

These hounds of hell if this frail leash be thrown — 
Oh restrain ! Restrain ! Too well the truth is known ! 
Not yet the crimson spear and sword 
Shall trim the vine and turn the sward. 
Thy presence we must bear till omnipotence 
All hostile powers from power disown 
And change man's heart and love enthrone. 
Oh deliverance shalt thou ever come, 
Since faith is often slain and hope is stricken dumb I 



200 SOUL SONGS 

And other fields then the mangled scattered dead 
Their victims claim of thousand thousands slain. 
Trade and industries : I know they must remain 
For human need, but what heart has never bled 
For boys and girls on hours of labor fed ? 
The city's heart each morn doth bleed 
To see them forced by forcing need, 
And early bound by slavery's iron chain. 

The home and school, forest and field 
Should in and round them be unsealed. 
What a sacrifice for a worthless heap of gold 
Do the heavens above and the earth beneath behold? 

From their short youth until their ripest years 
A hopeless labor is the law of life; 
For labor without God is but a strife 

Of selfishness and death, while heaven's spheres 
Of life and love grow blind and disappears. 

The law is: "Toil! Toil! Toil, oh slave !" 
And with no end but for the grave. 
If one rebels then hunger's ragged knife 

Doth tear a gash straight to the heart, 
Which men will see and cold depart. 
No other passion like the curse of gold 
Can change the warming heart to polar icy cold. 

In this intense and concentrated age 
Of selfishness, the workmanship divine 
Though deep defaced, bearing the workman's sign, 
Is cheaper in the mart then what would gage 
The value of a beast. Horses and kine 
Command a larger care than men. 
Machines are under constant ken, 
And often dogs are tended by a page. 

Oh human life is more than cheap ! 
Oft hunted, murdered to the deep. 
Trade's vast machine turns swifter round and round 
With nought or light regard for thousands ground and 
ground. 



SOUL SONGS 201 

Oh what a sorrow sight before the wise ! 
As they behold at the city's restless heart 
Ten thousand thousand whose life is but a mart 
For profitless exchange. Why do men's eyes 
See not the throned and azure splendored skies ! 
To buy and sell, to get and gain 
Is more than all the gifts of pain, 
Or all the dreams that on her visions dart. 
Men sell themselves, the god in them, 
His jewels their birth which diadem. 
Faith, love and truth, ideals and more are sold 
By hosts of human kind for worthless heaps of gold. 

Wealth now is god and life's supremest art 
Is but to worship her. A golden image 
Is enthroned on an exalted stage; 

Her dazzling continental splendors dart 
From sea to sea. Oh, each remotest part 
Of this vast nation's host of men 
Behold ! Does not thy prophet ken 
Behold the choicest spirits of the age 

Hearing that sound low prostrate fall 
To worship her their all in all? 
The few that scorn the god that hosts desire 
Are instant thrust again into a sevenfold fire. 

Another class akin to these exchange 
All gifts for public place; their all for power 
And honors bright that fade within an hour. 
And many more to wisdom still more strange 
Barter all high kingdoms if they can range 
Where fashion, wealth and pride aglow, 
Eat, drink, drive and clothe and show. 
Most near to these who forfeit equal dower 
Another class hear pleasure's call 
And haste to drink her honeyed gall. 
How many in that swift seducing round 
Deem trifles but the hour and foolishness there found? 



203 SOUL SONGS 

A very few like travelers in a desert land 
Do seek the fountains that have ever burst 
To slake the mind and its consuming thirst 
For knowledge, and the right to understand 
What idealists in their high kingdoms planned. 
Some fewer still who seem insane 
With some wild fancies of the brain 
Do ever seek their finite bands to burst 
And in the Uncreated find 
A purity for heart and mind. 
These last, the wisdom, salt and light of earth, 
Though scorned and trodden down, but find the ends of birth. 

But, Oh this vast mass ! This helpless seething mass 
Of unconscious, blind and lost humanity; 
Without life or hope of being's destiny, 

What are they and who cares for them ? They pass 
As mighty herds o'er life's scant pastured grass. 
No beauty on their eyeballs blind; 
No kingly thoughts within the mind; 
No impassioned pulse of eternity; 

No love divine within the heart; 
No God doth on their conscience start; 
Their souls in rounds of labor, grief and greed, 
Are dead to all high powers that life alone can feed. 

Far, far from these: How very few of millions 
Out of the mass as the morning stars do rise 
With undimmed splendor ! And what a glad surprise 
To find in the eternal sphere pavilions 
New firmamental lights ! What postilions 
Upon fire ! What imperial power 
In their right arm ! What lightning dower 
Of spirit blaze from their unconquered eyes ! 
For each who gain a throne and crown 
What battling hosts must they tread down ! 
And Oh how oft ! when on the summit's height 
Life's gain is found as dross and noon is turned to night. 



SOUL SONGS 203 

Around the golden portal of our birth 
Congregate young strengths and joys and hopes, 
Whose passions scorn the rough ascending slopes 
Of life, for knowledge of rebellious earth 
Can never pierce the consciousness of mirth 
But Oh how soon ! how very soon ! 
Beneath the height and heat of noon 
The strongest faints and blind in darkness gropes. 
Oh must this life forever slay us? 
First a cosmos, then a chaos, 
First ideals, fiery heart and lightning mind, 
Then failure nor the good, within, before, behind. 

Our desecrated and dethroned ideals, 
Religious faiths and joys and sacred sorrows 
Unsheltered roam time's unhospitable morrows. 
As celestial foreigners in earthly fields, 
Though with ancestoral grace and royal seals, 
They seek in vain some mortal heart 
Wherein to dwell and free impart 
What e'en the first archangel gladly borrows. 
Oh what a wilderness for them ! 
Oh with what judgments they condemn ! 
High heaven's hosts come forth at birth to crown 
At sunset they are fled or on us darkly frown. 

Yea worse ! Love travailing in her bondage 
Dost inspire the poet's soaring mind. 
These splendors of her new creation are signed 
In imperishable imagery, and now gage 
Man's deep descent and his unhallowed rage. 
These images the most divine, 
Whose music, power and light shall shine 
Though ages like the past shall be untwined; 
These natures pure which recreate 
Who love and live and contemplate; 
These kingdoms which the smile of God doth crown - 
By hosts and hosts and hosts are scorned and trampled down. 



204 SOUL SONGS 

The sons of genius, the celestial powers, 
The gifts divine, the hierarchs of worth, 
The splendors rare that should enlight the earth 
And guide her course to those immortal hours 
They see and feel in their high spirit dowers : 
Who weeps not sorrow's sacred tear 
Upon the dark and ruined bier 
Of this divorce from such prophetic birth ! 
Their sunlike gifts, their sunlike light 
Serves but to read life's line aright. 
Unbalanced, driven, ruined, ashamed and cursed, 
None, none but them can know how life is strange reversed. 

Why is human life so lean? Why failure, 
Disappointment, loss, despondency, remorse? 
The spirit's high endowments and the force 
Of immortality doubtless should insure 
Men high careers of progress, and should cure 
The sad disorders of our state. 
Vast potiencies divine and great 
And prophecies that through all storms endure 
Are felt in will and heart and brain, 
And kindle neath life's stress and strain. 
Led on by dreams no dream should e'er deceive 
Ideal worlds pass by and us behind them leave. 

Why should the individual and the race 
Be such fiascoes ? What infinite ideal 
Can justify the earth's dark history, and repeal 
The waste of human life, the gifts and grace 
Of billioned souls whom chaos doth embrace? 
One, only one of all our line 
Has ever reached the goal divine. 
His few redeemed were found where ruin reels 
Helpless to the abysmal deep. 
All else is failure. Oh the reap 
Of death ! Oh the harvests vast of sin and hell ! 
Oh the loss and bitterness ! God, God alone can tell ! 



SOUL SONGS 205 

Oh Love ! two long millenniums have rolled around 
Since thy high priest with sacrifice divine 
Burst with effulgent brightness on the line 
Of selfishness. With tremendous bound 
Some sinful hearts leaped to his sight and sound. 
The promise long has been delayed; 
Hate, greed and strife are still unstayed, 
But stronger grow as each with others twine. 
Still evil yet doth reign supreme; 
All clearly see in the lights that stream 
The world is unredeemed. The Christ who died 
Though the world's only hope each day is crucified. 

The great institution of the church doth shame 
Her proud pretentions. She is a disgrace 
To God and a glory to the devil. Place, 

Power, wealth and numbers, form and fashion's fame 
Is more than Christ and the Spirit's glowing flame. 
Without a splendor full unfurled; 
Within a white washed wrinkled world, 
A scorn of men whose piercing visions trace 
One life in strange extremest forms. 
A church that ne'er disturbs or storms 
Whatever stands in live's obstructed way, 
Is the worst restraining power of her divinest day. 

The high enthroned, purple and crowned transgressors 
Of position, power, wealth and intelligence, 
O'er the wide hosts of helpless ignorance 

Become still more the strong and proud oppressors. 
The union and new acts of these possessors 
Upon the new horizon's bound 
Cast most portentous sight and sound. 
What dark chaotic dreams will issue hence 
From want and hunger outraged sleep 
If once their tempest passions leap? 
The strife of life intensifies each day, 
The weak are beasts of burden, the strong are beasts of prey. 



206 SOUL SONGS 

The religious instincts and the deep 
Intuitional sense of the divine 
Seems in a strange decay. The darkest sign 
Of all our time is, that such hosts can sleep 
With no more God than horses, kine or sheep. 
No thanksgiving song, or prayer for 
Help or confessions upward soar. 
In most no moral nature seems to shine. 
The fundamental pieties 
Of nature, state and families, 
That virtue lent to a less enlightened day 
Seem dying in the strife and slowly pass away. 

Atheism, profanity and ignorance, 
Pride, pleasure, falsehood and dishonesty, 
Drunkenness and foulest sensuality, 
Material power and lordly competence, 
All, all dark ghouls of selfishness and sense 

Shout: "The earth, the earth is all our own, 
Nor God nor heaven can us dethrone. 
This is our royal day of power and we 

Will blast or bless who bind or free 
Our reign with more intensity. 
God, heaven and angels high are overthrown 
Bulwarked by ages long the earth is all our own." 

Oh Love all things are calling out for thee ! 
The voice of earth and all her generations 
With thunder song of mountain intonations, 
Is gathering round thy throne of victory 
In intercession for the liberty 

From this bondage of corruption 
Into the glory of the children 
Of God. Through time's strife and agitations, 
Though bound with adamantine chain, 
Though crucified and often slain, 
All things oft sing with wider echoing tones 
For thy millennial earth, millennial sons and thrones. 



SOUL SONGS 20? 

To men or office dare we longer grope? 
Since the course of civilization in 
The history of her leading men has been 

A curse and loudest blasphemies against the hope 
The azure skies upon our spirits ope. 
Our politics are but a crime, 
A pestilential bed of slime, 
Sowing on life abortive births of sin. 

Can honest men? Can men of God? 
Can men of conscience, truth or laud 
With any wing hold office, place or power 
When justice is dethroned and bribery rules the hour? 

All things now call and call alone for thee. 
Time like an aged sire wrinkled and white, 
But with his rich experiences doth slight 
And scorn all panaceas that would free 
The social heart from its long leperosy. 
He has seen every generation 
With some sure cure its courses run 
Then leave the world with still more deadly blight. 
No age has diagnosis sure 
And if it had, Oh could it cure? 
No mortal power regenerates the heart 
And all things without this but more disease impart. 

The very time's developments of power, 
Knowledge and conquest over nature debate 
The enfranchisement of man from this weight 
Of centenarian ill. Is this endower 
For selfish ends ? Does it not invite the hour 
Of disestablishment to throne 
Thee over all supreme alone, 
In honor, majesty and sovereign state? 

The gifts and powers of heaven above 
Are only safe in hands of love ; 
In other hands a curse they must untwine, 
But with thee they are safe and grow still more divine. 



208 SOUL SONGS 

The discords of our unredeemed humanity 
That strike despair upon our mortal ears 
Ascend on high; reaching celestial spheres 
There is a change and a minor harmony 
Of life's unlanguaged pain is heard by thee. 
Man's passion-blind and erring play 
Are not to thee just what they say. 
When thou translatest earthly hopes and fears 
A prayer is oft in guilty deed. 
We know thine eyes with sorrows bleed, 
And thou can'st hear by sorrow's mystic art 
The world's travailing pain as prayers unto thy heart. 

Around the iron guarded gate of death 
Soon gather those that crowd the portal birth. 
Broken, torn and sick and robbed of strength and mirth, 
They come to yield up sorrow's burdened breath. 
Each generation there this prayer hath solemn saith: 
"Oh not for me ! Oh not for me ! 
High kingdom of eternity ! 
By all I wished but found not here on earth, 
By life and ruin, loss and pain, 
By my immortal nature slain, 
By all thou art and will be in thy day 
For coming generations Oh haste ! Oh haste, I pray !" 

The church which thine own Christ has full redeemed; 
The church which incarnates his personality, 
Thoughts, passions, principles, immortality, 

And the ripe fullness which the Father streamed 
Into his empty form; that church has dreamed 
With joy sublime of that far age 
Which promise, power and grace engage 
To build on earth for lost humanity, 

That church doth groan ; Oh deeply groan ! 
Oh is it not thy spirit's moan ! 
Can these deep sighs which issue from thy breast 
Be lost in vanity nor ever find their rest? 



SOUL SONGS 209 

Thy first descended sons of pure inspire 
Whom thou hast sent from thy celestial clime 
To hold the faith, and with glad songs to chime 
The golden age feel thy prophetic fire 
Within their hearts. Each gathers the desire 
So scattered wide in man and thing 
And unto thee their sorrows sing. 
Sing on, Oh poet priests ! Oh be not dumb 
Unto this age of strife and gold ! 
Though they hear not nor ye behold, 
With triumphant joy and deathless faith sum 
Up the world's travailing cry : "Come ! Come Oh kingdom ! 
Come !" 

"Come ! Come, Oh long delayed and golden age ! 
Age of the world's unlanguaged deep desire ! 
Age of her travailing pain and the inspire 
Of high victorious hours ! Age that will gage 
Itself by the awful curse and darkest page 
Of earth's yet undeciphered heart. 
Age of the poet's song ! Age that art 
The embodiment of all the higher 

Visioned dreams which the celestial spheres 
Have rained on pain and love and tears ! 
Age of divine purpose, fullness and employ, 
From heaven, Oh descend and build on time's destroy !" 

"Oh age bend down and lay thy passioned heart 
Upon the nurseless spirit of the earth ! 
Her long and wintry courses since her birth 
Have frozen her forbidding the impart 
That glorifies with thy celestial art. 
Come ! Kiss thy infant and caress, 
And with thy warmth her spirit bless ! 
Thou crimson life ! Thou pure maternal mirth ! 
Thou warm divine self-sacrifice ! 
Oh bid the earth's dead soul arise ! 
Then through her dense diseased material frame 
Thy all renewing life will burst forth like a flame." 



210 SOUL SONGS 

"Come thou! Rebuild earth's habitations 
Where thy unselfish and celestial hosts 
May dwell ! The cities of our proudest boasts 
Will form for them the underground foundations. 
Thy peoples with imperial creations 
Will build until they cities seem 
A vision, an architectural dream, 
Heaven itself upon our earthly coasts 
With that magnificence no king 
Has dared to dream. Thou art the spring. 
Of wealth, of power, of beauty and delight, 
And givest all thou art to purity and right." 

Touch thou the earth's unemancipated king, 
And with the contact of thy immortal heart 
Oh disenthrall his spirit from the mart 
Of selfishness ! Oh let his manhood spring 
From time's long travailing agonies, and wing 
Unto the infinite ideal 
Thou dost upon his eyes unseal ! 
Dethroned, plundered, profaned, enslaved, a part 
Of groaning nature, unconscious, 
And trampled down by beasts and sense 
His hour of disenfranchisement be now, 
iAnd they investiture upon the morning's brow !" 

"Thou hast the full resources for this life. 
Thou canst destroy the hory iniquities 
Bequeathed to us by the antiquities 

Of crime. Some few leaders of this strife, 
Some chiefs, some towers of self, thy lightning knife 
Must blast and hurl into the dust 
To stay time's swift contageous lust. 
O'er the wide host thy soft benignities 

And arching grace from heaven above, 
As o'er the sick a mother's love, 
Can smother down time's heritage of ill 
And nurse out of the earth a race that thou dost fill." 



SOUL SONGS 211 

"Thou canst destroy the infernal dogs of war, 
And the politics of hell by which their 
Course is constant driven. Panic with her bare 
And hunger bitten hords would fly before, 
And poverty be exiled from thy shore. 
The theatre, brothel and saloon 
Will break their long commune, 
And sink with curse to each infernal lair. 

Greed, strife, crime, sorrow and decay; 
Ignorance, diseases and dismay; 
All, all of sin, of selfishness and blight 
Shall fly before thy face as darkness from the light." 

"Come thou on earth with thy exhaustless heart! 
Thou hast celestial and supremest powers. 
Thou hast the azure and immortal dowers 
Of sun-giving heaven. Thou hast and art 
The spirit pure that in each angel flowers 
To splendor, joy and purity. 
The nature of divinity 
Is thine alone and thou canst it impart. 
Sow ! Sow thy potencies of life 
And from the very heart of strife 
Another world with beauty and delight 
With forth from chaos rise toward heaven's golden height." 

"Come ! Bring the royal institutes of state ! 
The high, supreme, majestic, honored laws; 
And kin to these those reverential awes 
Thy youth and age delight to contemplate 
As we behold the statues of the great. 

Virtue, justice, truth and righteousness, 
Thy nations shall with splendor dress ! 
Faith, love, hope, joy, magnanimousness, applause, 
Shall be the ornaments of gold 
Each brow and heart shall then unfold. 
Come! Come Oh state! What business, school and 
home 
Thy bases shall support, enkindle shall thy dome!" 



212 SOUL SONGS 

"As thy institutions are above the past 
Bring thou the man that is enthroned on them; 
The man who is his throne and diadem, 
And in whom the Infinite has glassed 
His nature's passions. Oh bring him on the blast 
And wreckage of this mortal kind ! 
Oh immortal heart and mind ! 
Spirit divine ! the world's pinnacle ! the gem 
Of all creation ! Oh mate 
Of seraphim ! Oh incarnate 
Son of God ! the hosts of eternity 
Are bending from their thrones to look with joy on thee." . 

"Oh man divine who would not long for thee ! 
Thou crowning all art with devotion crowned, 
And from devotion's heart riches supreme abound 
As blessing from the azure purity. 
Thy passions with the white intensity 
Of love fills every welcome birth 
Of thy uncrowded crowded earth. 
Oh how the new created heavens resound 
With universal harmony ! 
One redeemed humanity ! 
One human brotherhood ! One family race ! 
One many passioned heart that one heart does embrace !" 

"Come ! Come Oh long delayed and golden age ! 
Age of all passions, purities and powers ! 
Age of all ideals and sublimest hours 
Of execution ! Oh age that will gage 
The heightless height and boundless reach that cage 
Themselves in frail humanity! 
Oh age of immortality 
Which the fountains of the infinite assuage ! 

Come ! Oh rise on time's foundation stones 
The splendors of thy everlasting thrones ! 
Come thou upon the morning's golden pinions 
And round the feet of God build thou thy last dominions !" 



SOUL SONGS 213 



OUR DAY. 



A golden springtime morn, 

With heart as light 
As flowers that life adorn, 

And just as bright. 

The noonday's toil and strength 

Is full of strife; 
Toil, sin and grief at length 

Wears out our life. 

The sun sinks in the west; 

The day doth cease; 
Our hands from labor rest 

With evening's peace. 

All earth doth slumber now; 

Stars throng the deep; 
A prayer we breathe and bow; 

And then we sleep. 



YOUTH AND AGE. 



When I was young ! When I was young 

I did not dream of grief. 
Fear, strife and pain and discord's tongue 

Were not in my belief. 
Now I am old ! Now I am old ! 

Where is the golden dream? 
Where are the high romances rolled 

Outshining summer's gleam? 



214 SOUL SONGS 

LOST AND FOUND. 

I fell beside the way of life, 

Earth, sky and sea were glad; 
And in my heart there was no joy 

But sadness made most sad. 
The sun of early days had set 

And drawn his twilight curtain; 
A dark, dark cloud was overhead, 

A storm was made most certain. 
My mind then turned to early days; 

I wished some strange device 
Could bear me to my childhood home, 

My golden paradise. 

I turned to trace my wayward steps 

Along this golden cord, 
When flashing in my very face 

I saw a flaming sword, 
My grief at this was so intense 

My mind turned round and round, 
Till I no more could bear the strain 

And fell upon the ground. 
I dreamt of paradise, and toward 

It in my dream I crept; 
When I awoke and found it dream, 

I wept and wept and wept. 

But as I wept the burning tears 

Did purge my blinded sight; 
And faintly far before there gleamed 

Another golden light. 
With streaming eyes and wounded feet, 

And many a broken heart 
I struggled on life's thorny way 

To reach that gate apart. 
I grew less proud and strong and swift, 

And broken day by day, 
The word I heard, the hand I took, 

And learned again to pray. 



SOUL SONGS 215 

So thus for years I travelled on 

With paradise in view; 
As I the truths of life did learn, 

The more a child I grew. 
When I the shining step did reach 

Self's heart again was broke; 
The flight of her last soul from mine 

Was my last mortal stroke . 
A little child I passed the gate, 

Was fanned by balmy air, 
The spirit of its life and love 

Swept back my manhood care. 

I bared my sore heart to the sun, 

I drank away my fears, 
I wandered round among the flowers, 

And bathed them with my tears. 
I went into a secret bower 

With rose leaves newly strewed 
That I might but relieve my heart 

Of its full gratitude; 
When I looked up I saw a face 

That filled me with surprise; 
It was the face of long ago 

With new light in His eyes. 

And memory then flashed on my mind 

A truth with glory bossed; 
I was again in paradise 

The same as I had lost. 

SONG AND SIGH. 

When we are young! When we are young! 

Our joy can grief defy; 
So wild is gladness on our tongue 

We sorrow for a sigh. 
When we are old! When we are old! 

And years upon us throng, 
Amid the griefs around us rolled 

We sorrow for a song. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



THE POET'S ADVICE. 

Within my dreams the other night 

I met a poet old; 
A poet soul of lofty height 

From realms of rhyme and gold; 
Old Homer's brow was on his head, 

Tense Dante in his heart, 
And Milton on the lips that led 

The high poetic art. 

"I've looked for one for many a year; 

For one whose soul could take 
Out of the silence, deep and sphere 

The truths that music wake. 
A wealth of most immortal song 

Rings round all, ever rings; 
To kindred hearts amid the throng 

With life's delight it springs." 

"Thou art descended from a race 

Of ancient kings of old; 
The law of life and crowning grace 

They to the world have told; 
And I the father of that line 

From yonder starry height, 
Unfold the secrets most divine 

And gird thee with our might." 



218 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

"The old mythologies are dead; 

New science takes its place; 
A modern world has come instead; 

Another runs the race; 
Forget the ancient dreams and deeds; 

The newer time renown; 
"Another race and nobler breeds 

Oh spirit, clothe and crown." 

"Delivered from the hoary past 

Look straight unto the years; 
The present is a spirit vast 

To climb the newer spheres. 
The here and now is broader base 

As truth is more than dream; 
Gives larger scope, asks better grace, 

More passion, thought and gleam." 

"The newer field is larger far, 

A vaster sweeping plan; 
Another glory rounds the star; 

Far richer is the man; 
The age is deep, intense and high; 

Life marches right along; 
Waits empty ear and straining eye 

The singer and the song." 

"But ere the soul a song can sing 

The heart must burning love, 
Just as before the harp can ring 

The fire falls from above. 
Love is the very soul of life, 

The very soul of song; 
E'en out of discord's harshest strife 

She bringeth music strong." 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 219 

Love is a fountain that to feed 

The infinite delights; 
Such overflow the rivers breed 

As reaches heaven's heights. 
And heaven itself, a world of song 

With singing souls aglow, 
Is love redeemed from earthly wrong 

And fed to overflow." 

"Love has the farthest reach of thought; 

Rich passions glowing white; 
The truths that life has ever sought, 

And victory over night. 
Her eyes can read the central heart; 

Her hand can build the sky; 
The best equipment for thine art 

Is love divine and high." 

"Then ever seek to live in love 

With man and bird and beast; 
With all divine enthroned above, 

All down unto the least. 
The very worm thy kindred is; 

Love through creation streams; 
Who lives in it, all things are his, 

All persons, deeds and dreams." 

"Live close to nature's mother heart; 

Thy primal noblest nurse 
Will give her life, of which a part 

Is rythmic passioned verse. 
Her very life flows into song; 

In music she delights; 
The singer mid this battling throng, 

She crowns him on the heights." 



220 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

"The great in man is nature's great; 

From her he comes and goes; 
The one the many incarnate; 

Some few she overflows. 
Songs, songs are in her elements; 

Song rounds the very curse; 
Song reigns forever, ever hence 

And nature is its nurse." 

"Art lives an hour then life resigns. 

Can nature e'er expire? 
Who lives and writes from her, his lines 

Shall feed the world's desire. 
Oh mother this thy child baptize 

In sun and earth and sea ! 
Within him live, so through him rise 

Thy world soul's melody." 

"Just as to nature to the home 

Be strong and fierce and white; 
Where e'er thy lightning wings shall roam 

Return here with the night. 
This sphere divine the heavens high 

First planned and formed on earth; 
Thou hast no poet's heart and eye 

If blind unto its worth." 

"Man's better self, the noble wife; 

The children undefiled; 
An atmosphere of saving life; 

A garden mid the wild; 
A woman's dream; a man's inspire; 

A childhoods' refuge pure; 
I tell thee soul, this primal fire 

Has lived and shall endure." 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 221 

"All human elements the best; 

All hopes and joys and dreams 
Are bursting here, and he is blest 

Who deeply drinks its streams. 
Here songs are rising from life's fount 

And unto heaven spring; 
Oh catch and fix them as they mount ! 

And sing of home, Oh sing !" 

"Out of the home the course of life 

Doth drive man to the field, 
The campus and the battle strife 

Of helmet, sword and shield; 
Disdain thou not the soldier's strain; 

The combatants and fight; 
Within that host and in a chain 

Life battles for her right." 

"Though blindness, greed and death are there, 

Though man in madness slays, 
The singer and the saint must dare 

Time's forces, finds and plays. 
Surprise and grief and brutal scorn 

Shall trample, rend and fling; 
But other songs and saints are born 

That higher rise and sing." 

"Then down among the fighting breeds ! 

Grasp firm the ancient blade ! 
The poet's arm has nations freed 

And empire bases laid. 
Life, soul and song themselves there find; 

Up scales diviner grow; 
Right to the front and for thy kind, 

Go singer ! Forward go !" 



222 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

"Yonder is Sinai's splintered peak; 

White summit's there uncap 
Deep thunder judgments; terrors speak 

In many an awful clap. 
Sin ! Sin in lightning vengeance cursed, 

Sin, death and hell are free, 
Like monsters hungry and athirst 

Swift chase and crunch on thee." 

"Yonder is Calvary's famous mount; 

Oh love ! Oh love sublime ! 
Thy crimson crest and crimson fount 

Still towers above all time! 
The Father of the universe 

Opens his heart of hearts; 
And life and love upon the curse 

In fulness free imparts." 

"Yonder is Beulah's shining plain 

Which golden splendors steep; 
The pearly gates and heaven's strain 

Across her bosom sweep; 
The highest course upon the earth 

With circles most divine, 
There heaven itself in man has birth 

And life is drunk with wine." 

"Around and up these mountains three, 

Clumb ! Climb Oh singer ! Climb ! 
Nought so can lend intensity 

To magic, truth and rhyme. 
The forces of the universe 

Are all in focus there; 
And most eternal music nurse 

No time or space can wear." 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 223 

"Into the mind, immortal mind, 

Plant, plant the seeds of thought ! 
From sayings of the wise and kind 

The harvest age is wrought. 
Oh give the thinker living seed ! 

Give wheat's divinest kind ! 
No other can his spirit feed; 

Plant, plant within the mind!" 

"Srike human nature's feelings deep! 

Straight home unto the heart! 
Strike to the passions, they will keep 

The fire that thou dost start! 
Right through the vestments of all life, 

Right through all tissues thick, 
Through business, pleasure, pomp and strife, 

Strike, strike them to the quick !" 

"Lift up before the eyes of dream 

The beautifuls of earth; 
Upon their opening vision stream 

The splendors round thy birth. 
Feed fairy fancy's magic power; 

The necromancy gift 
Immortal makes the mortal hour, 

And thou and them shall lift." 

"Strike! Strike the moral nature strong! 

Strike! Strike with lightning bolts! 
The conscience mid this earthly wrong 

Needs earthquake rending jolts. 
A solar plexus punch on sin, 

Oh strike and send him down! 
Another man will rise within 

And right his spirit crown." 



224 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

"The poet is the uncrowned king; 

The giver of the law; 
The nurse that doth the ages bring 

Of life and love and awe; 
Revealer of the true ideal, 

Son of eternity, 
Unto the truth I solemn seal 

Oh faithful, faithful be !" 

So sang the poet from the height 

Unto my immost breast; 
His presence and his song of might 

My being more than blessed. 
He paused, and when I would have spoke 

I saw him gently rise, 
And watched the dying line that broke 

Along the starry skies. 



THE DREAM. 

Dream ! Oh dream ! Oh living dream ! 
That upon our visions stream 
Art thou real or only seem? 
Just an image, word or line, 
With a breath of life divine, 
And a robe of rainbow shine. 
Just a fancy flimsy dressed, 
Glimpse or gleam of something guessed 
Vision, flash or brightness blest. 
Neither flesh nor blood nor bone 
Just the frailest phantom known, 
Spirit by the zepher blown 
Round the world to every zone. 
But divine celestial thing 
Thou dost live upon the wing, 
And forever shine and sing. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 225 



Born within a poet's soul 
When life's distant shining goal 
On his lifted eye-balls roll. 
From this chaos mind and sight 
Brought thee from the void of night 
Birth of beauty and delight. 
In his heart as in a fire 
He immersed thee, and thy sire 
Gave thy heart his best desire; 
Then thee kissed thy father nurse, 
On thy lips he left a verse 
Sweeter than the larks unpurse. 
Smiled he beauty on thy face, 
Like the shadow of that grace 
Which his passions ever chase. 



Spirit beautiful to sight! 
Only feeling form and light 
Yet a power in day and night. 
Dwelling in the azure clime, 
Sun or stary birth of time 
Thou hast magic most sublime. 
Shining in the morning hour, 
Standing on the noonday tower, 
Walking mid the twilight bower. 
On the world's immortal heart 
Like a bride in flowers thou art, 
Dreams within the dreams that start. 
Hope and joy and purity 
Wisdom and her children free 
See and love and follow thee. 



226 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Man though pompous, swift and proud 
Passes like a flying cloud 
Wrapped unconscious in his shroud. 
All his works of fame and power 
Follow him in just an hour 
Down time's phantom shadowed bower, 
Mountains crumble and decay, 
Seas to vapor pass away, 
Earth herself grows cold and gray. 
Even suns of splendor bright 
Empty in the void their light 
And like cinders circle night. 
All is passing or will pass 
Like the figures in a glass 
Worlds and men alas ! alas ! 



But Oh dream thou canst not die ! 
Thy immortal heart and high 
Deftest all beneath the sky. 
Nature with her lightning knife 
And her elemental strife 
Cannot even touch thy life. 
Can the blindness, grief and greed 
Which to death this human feed 
Prove contagious to thy breed? 
Can the times that conquest flings 
Over ages, empires, kings, 
Vanquish thee on azure wings? 
Far above all strife and time 
Royal, princely, pure and prime, 
Livest thou with life sublime. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 227 



Like an angel in the earth 
Beautiful as at her birth 
Radiant and benign in mirth, 
Thou art flying up and down 
And all beauties that thee crown 
Unveilest free to king and clown. 
Thy rich alabaster heart 
Breaks with passion to impart 
All that makes thee what thou art. 
Kisses sweet, celestial kisses; 
Blisses pure, unblighting blisses; 
And the love man ever misses. 
Heaven's height and matchless grace 
Shines upon thy glorious face 
Like an angel to our race. 



Mother of these dreams divine, 
Thou dost on our spirits shine 
Till for higher love we pine. 
Thou dost light the heart and mind, 
And our nobler spirits find 
By the visions that us blind. 
Thou dost enter, lift and nurse 
The hope of this vast universe 
By thy face and heart's unpurse. 
Worlds within our world is built, 
Free from sorrow, fear and guilt, 
Where thou rulest as thou wilt. 
Thou dost fashion, form and crown 
With high heaven's royal gown, 
Virtue, beauty and renown. 



228 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Dream ! Oh dream ! Oh living dream 
That upon our visions stream, 
Shine ! Oh shine in brighter gleam ! 
Surely thou art from the heart 
Whence divinest things all start, 
Just a smile from Him thou art, 
Falling on these sightless eyes, 
Who but mounteth to the skies; 
By the passions pure that rise? 
Onward ! Onward we are led 
Where the dream and deed are wed, 
And with love forever fed. 
Still upon our visions gleam 
Like the face from whence ye stream ! 
Dream ! Oh dream ! Oh living dream ! 



TIME'S IMMORTAL: 

I asked in thunder tones: 

"Skies, mountains, forests, streams, 
Man, beast and bird and stones, 

Schools, cities, temples, dreams : 
From this eternal change, 

This endless flowing tide, 
Of all the world we range 

What longest shall abide?" 

'The most immortal thing 

That rises in the earth, 
Is song upon the wing 

With sorrow mothered mirth. 
Rich passions in its heart, 

Ripe beauty on its face, 
How can it e'er depart 

With things of time and place ?" 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 229 

"Deep planted in our tears, 

Forever on the sight, 
Sweet ringing in our ears, 

And shining on our night; 
More present after strife, 

Still young when we are old, 
A fountain heart of life 

When all our tales are told." 

"Time's splendors, pomp and power 

Of pinnacle and dome, 
Time's hunger will devour 

Like Egypt, Greece and Rome, 
But song with passion's glow 

Sweet, simple, bright and free 
Will live and with us go 

To all eternity." 



THE GOD OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A spirit new ascended to the earth 

With nature vast and superhuman dower, 
To breathe her life into each coming birth 

That should arise to rule the passing hour. 
Her passions and her world creating power 

Was more than mortal, and so the mortal frame 
Beneath the gifts and graces she did shower 

Was vitalized as with the strength of flame, 
And even round the flesh was something of the same. 

Her generation came straight from her heart, 

And her torrential life swept through each vein 
Until the vestiture in every part 

Was tensioned with a spirit's growing pain. 
From such a life unto the lightning brain 

Her visions bright with promised splendors leap 
And build themselves upon the springtime plain; 

Or bosom rich the future's rugged steep, 
Most scornful of the past that round lies buried deep. 



230 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

Since vital dreams when wedded to a hand 
Is mother of the high heroic deed, 

They quick transform and populate the land 
To harmonize and supplement their need. 

Mighty cities, palaces, towers, parks, speed- 
Trains and autos, wireless phones, electric lights, 

Air navigations and all arts that feed 

The mind and ear and beauty's raptured sights, 
All, all around them spring or shine upon the heights. 

But man must have a God. No change or power 

That sense can smother long. Earth's central fire 
Is hidden deep, and often for an hour 

Seems to have lost her ancient fierce desire. 
But soon the dead volcano throats expire 

Their elemental essences; so conscience 
Slumbers for a time, but her celestial ire 

Will rise again, but focused more intense 
Will sudden burst and burn their darkened calloused sense. 

Thus and not thus when that apostate race 

Forgot the pilgrim and ancestral God 
Of holiness and high redeeming grace. 

When strength and wealth and pride were strange tin- 
awed 
Before the living God, the Life that lawed 

The universe, that void most undivine 
And vast was felt so ill, hosts did applaud 

An image new that from the heights did shine 
With all their hearts could wish to meet the restless pine. 

A most gigantic human god of gold 

Was dreamed for them, and its material brought 
From sea, mountain, desert isle, poison hold 

And frozen river. All the earth was sought 
For full ten thousand men whose gifts had wrought 

The world famed statuary. They soon were found 
And for their task were still more highly taught 

By the wide multitude whose daily sound, 
"Oh give us such a god as this !" did on their spirits bound. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS S31 

Both night and day for near a score of years 

They toiled and it was done. Nine solid squares 
In Chicago's surging heart quick disappears 

For temple space, and the earth's deep rock unbares 
For its foundations. The surrounding wall wears 

The panels and reliefs of genius, and are enscrolled 
With noblest imagery. Vast labor bears 

The image hence: inventions most untold 
Erect upon its base this latest god of gold. 

Behold ! Behold the monumental god ! 

Where are the gods the pagans hewed from stone 
And raised before the conscience darkly awed? 

In all the world is there a classic throne 
Of adoration that has ever known 

The faintest sign of this transcendent reach? 
All, all are mocked by the majesty here shown r 

And disenthroned forever from our speech; 
From life's celestial heights that wake, inspire and teach* 

The hoary forms of ancient superstition, 

Chiseled from the solid mountains, in a mass 
Would make for this but merest base position. 

Nebuchadnezzar's image though it pass 
In pomp before time's magnifying glass 

Were but a toy or as a faint forecast 
Of this idolatry. The images that would class 

Men as divine are here together clasped, 
United all in one, forever unsurpassed. 

Above the all surrounding mass it towered, 

And dwindled into insignificance 
The office structures wealth has reared and dowered. 

Against the azure sky it strikes the sense, 
As a wearied traveler through a dense 

And tangled wilderness from a hill beholds 
That massive dome from yonder city whence 

His heart is pressing; the image so embolds 
The skyscape and the works that man around it folds. 



232 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

The pedestal did fill that ample court. 

Round its feet were giant images of art. 
Its head reached unto heaven and looked athwart 

The hemisphere. The rampart breasted parts 
Were most symmetrical and filled the heart's 

Desire for form. The draperied loins seemed trees 
On California mountains, with arm out-starts 

From massive trunk to catch the thunder breeze. 
It seemed like nature's work, like land and rocks and seas. 

Her right hand held the scepter of the earth 

As if long shafts of swift effulgent light, 
Like those that from the thunder clouds have birth, 

Were sudden grasped as in a fist of might 
Omnipotent. Its oblique line was white 

Across the day; and a diamond had been set 
Upon its point as if the dome of night 

Had into one her starry natures let, 
And that one glorious star its place appointed met. 

Her left hand held aloft a globe that met 

The day with incense that the senses steal 
On high to where its purple curtains fret 

The azure arch, and richest perfumes deal 
Their sweetness on the earth. A vast appeal 

That outstretched arm and lifted face assume 
Before the day, and a more magnificence unseal 

Unto the night, for electric lights illume 
That perfect godlike form and pierce the farthest gloom. 

Every member of that gigantic frame 

Was lined and tensioned to the fine repose 
Of strength and majesty. It seemed the flame 

Of life was there, and the intensest glows 
Of elemental nature, and the flows 

Of its unimpeded fulness had thrown 
All to a fine expression. Each muscle shows 

The master power the passions ever loan, 
All bursting with the might that must have overflown. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 233 

But, Oh that face ! That countenance of power ! 

That expression of a mighty nation's 
Full united life in its supremest hour ! 

Oh the embodiment of elations, 
Energies, purposes, inspirations, 

Ambitions and devotions ! Oh the lines 
Of proudest consciousness, exaltions, 

Supremest powers and selfish vast designs ! 
All, all are written there with something still that pines. 

The brow was circled with the lightning lances 

Of rarest diamond; the elemental light 
Of sun-kissed jewels did crown the upward glances 

Of mankind. The bosom was bedight 
With famous plates, on which each state was bright 

In high symbolic sign. The robe of kings, 
Like flowing liquid gold upon the sight 

Swept to the earth like mighty folded wings, 
And even round the feet were jeweled flashing rings. 

From base to crown it was a mass of bright 

And burnished splendors. The golden sun divine 
Poured in full streams his radiancy of light 

Upon that head and every mirrored sign 
Dazzled the eyes. Its brightness did outshine 

All human strength. To look at it was like 
Looking at the sun with unprotected eyne 

Its effulgence did a blindness instant strike, 
And bowed man to the earth as stricken by a pike. 

Upon that proud imperial countenance 

And all around was far more than the might 
Of human nature. Such images of sense, 

Like the poetic natures of delight, 
Power, majesty and beauty, as their right 

Soul atmospheres create; so this creates 
An atmosphere around her presence bright, 

That reaches to the farthest boundary states, 
And feeds each coming birth in all their loves and hates. 



234 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

Often, often the culminating hour 

Of high heroic action doth vitalize 
The mortal frame with superhuman dower 

Until the transcendental energize 
Is uncontainable. The imperial eyes, 

Commanding front and every muscled sign 
Doth overflow, and in the hosts arise 

New senses from a presence so divine ; 
Some portions of his life all other lives enshrine. 

So was it then: the image filled the coasts 

And her delighted worshippers arose 
To pay allegiance in most unbounded boasts. 

There was thunder sounding acclamations, and those 
Spectaculars the sense forever throws 

Round its divinity. Its celebration 
Gathered all the earth, and in that small enclose 

Was focused fixed the interest of the nation, 
And their full life expressed as well became their station. 

The president and senators in white, 

The judges and the governors of state 
Were there, and most conspicuous in sight 

From dais-thrones and draperies ornate. 
The merchant prince and commerce kings of weight 

Were honored high, for they the chief expense 
Had gladly borne. It did rejoice them great 

To see all ranks with pleasure most intense 
So gather to the god that rules the nation hence. 

The army and the navy flashing bright, 

With shining swords and uniforms that gleam; 
Representatives and chancellors bedight 

As one would dress the figures in a dream; 
The beautiful and fashionhoods supreme; 

All honor, pride, power, dignity, renown, 
With the rabble close behind them in a stream 

Approach the shrine and prostrate cast them down 
Before the god that now they most supremely crown. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS S35 

Upon their face in solemn silence deep, 

As soul must be when it with God doth meet, 
An allegiance oath whose obligations sweep 

All space and time each spirit doth repeat. 
The universe has but one kingly seat 

To which appeal and vacancy invite 
By golden steps the now ascending feet. 

Silent, alone, intense, inflamed and bright, 
The spirits bowed but see the God in golden light. 

Then they arose and in processional 

Array did rearrange the votive line; 
In oft advancement or recessional 

They pledge anew and all to her resign. 
From silken jeweled banners bright did shine 

Most high ascriptions, and float unto the wind 
The rich emblazonery. Soon they combine 

In solid squares through which a path is lined, 
And every bannered fold to chosen hands consigned. 

A hundred daughters of ancestral name, 

The chosen virgins of the god and shrine, 
Far whiter than the snows of mountain fame, 

Took firm the staffs and with a step divine 
Approached the front, and waved in crescent line 

The richest flags that ever saw the light. 
Anon they cease and the flowing banners twine 

Around the base. Then blushing crimson bright, 
The consecrating priest anoints them in all sight. 

Bandmasters and their instrumentalists 

Of national repute seemed everywhere, 
And poured the march of proud returning conquests 

Or breathed the soft pianissimos of prayer. 
The chorus bands in spotless raiment fair, 

With fervent heart and gesture of appeal 
That music strong unto the heights did bear, 

Until the host look up or sudden kneel 
Before the passioned praise that maketh so to feel. 



236 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

Circling once more the oath again is paid 

By that great host that all together fall ; 
Heart, mind and will, faith, life and all are laid 

Down at her feet as thus they on her call: 
"Oh God of gods ! Oh God enthroned o'er all 

The earth and crowned the most supreme forever,! 
Thy splendors and thy majesty enthrall 

Our hearts, which naught from thine will dare to 
sever, 
For thou hast blessed and still will bless our best endeavour." 

"Thy benediction has been on our toil, 

And thy benignest gift above our thought 
Has blessed our work in mountain, sea and soil. 

Where'er the mind and faithful hand has wrought 
Success and wealth crown all; and thou hast frought 

With more than these, for thy own heart's inspire 
Has fed the soul and subtler wisdom taught, 

Until the heart cannot contain desire 
But after thee has gone as life unto the fire." 

"Thy fame be spread on earth and sea and sky; 

Thy blessing on the men that honor thee; 
Thy frown upon thy rival throned on high; 

Thy curse on those that unreceptive be; 
Thy welcome to the islands of the sea 

Who come from far to worship or behold 
Thy splendors. Thy richest dispensations free 

On them, until to all the earth is told, 
Thy majesty and power, dominion and uphold." 

"The States that breast the fierce Atlantic shocks, 

And those that bound the soft Pacific sea, 
With that maternal plain that ever rocks 

The hope of life are loyal unto thee : 
The White House and the lowest hut of this free 

Nation and the hearts within will entertain 
Thy image on the thrones that vacant be. 

Reign ! Reign Oh God ! Oh God forever reign ! 
And bless all worshippers who sing and love the strain." 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 237 

Such service o'er they took two mighty casts 

And set them up at each extremest gate; 
At New York and San Francisco, the fasts 

Of east and western life, they sit in state 
Most reverent and supreme. The multitudes elate 

With bread and clothes prosperity still crowd 
Around the shrine with acclamations great; 

Or prostrate fall with adoration bowed, 
And there upon the face the vows of life are vowed. 

Now smaller images for every town 

And city square are scattered far and wide, 
So that the idol and her splendors crown 

Each market place wherever men abide. 
No haunt of men the hills or valleys hide 

But she is there and circled daily round. 
The image and the services allied 

The inmost heart within the heart has found, 
Till she as high without within the soul is crowned. 

Still smaller yet are millions multiplied 

And its religious craft both day and night 
Are overwrought before the unsupplied 

Desire for casts. The idol shining bright 
Has found a place of honor and delight 

With every social rank. Her huge demand 
Has opened marts and doth the shelves bedight 

With every touch of wisest artist hand, 
Or plainer common moulds for toilers of the land. 

Great men of wealth whose deeds did most dethrone 

The living God most massive temples build 
For her; and men far worse but famous known 

For knowledge, from all the earth are tilled 
For her high priests, and they are found and willed 

To teach the heart of coming generations, 
Though all they teach but the best to be instilled, 

The primal universal heart pulsations, 
Love, justice, truth and faith, the very life of nations. 



238 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

The ministry ordained to teach the truth 

Of life, conscious or unconsciously have nooks 
For precious casts, till judgment, right and ruth 

Are clean suppressed before the golden looks 
Descending from the niche amid his books. 

That image from her high exalted tower 
Has an impassioned fierceness that never brooks 

The thought, pen or utterance of the power 
That speaks from Life and Love unto the mortal hour. 

The parenthood that should enthrone the good 

Within the first home temple of the earth, 
Oh how they choose the gods which they would 

Place before the eyes of their own being's birth ! 
Behold their type of life's supremest worth, 

Sought and found for the first and last allegiance 
Of their immortal offspring ! Behold the sight ! 

Hosts of idols ! doubt, purchase, bearing hence, 
Then lifting in the home before first opening sense. 

The hope, the One hope of the nation's last 

Deliverance seems gone. The vestal virgins mate 
With it and earth's noblest temple has unclasped 

And throned the thing o'er her divine estate 
Of maiden, wife and mother. Low and prostrate 

On her face her prayers and vows are told 
Each night, till being's deep desires create 

A host of dreams all clad in shining gold 
Upon her heart and mind and grow because untold. 

And so the god is high enthroned in empire 

O'er the nation. From her towering height supreme 
She spreads the scepter that ever rains inspire 

On city, state and union. A glorious gleam 
Straight from her heart kindles the brightest dream 

Of platform, press and politics. She feeds 
The hosts and mingles her own life with stream 

And air and field, and all our loves and greeds, 
And like the god men serve in them her image breeds. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 239 

She is the inspiration and the nurse 

Of unbelief, that sin so universal 
That wise professors know not it is the curse — 

The unadulterated extracts — the fell 
And uncompounded spirits and the quintessential 

And infinitely prolific nature 
Of all sin ; this sin, the first born curse of hell, 

With all the train that follow her most sure, 
She plants within the heart and thus would kill the pure. 

The greatest things a nation brings to birth 

Are incarnations from the celestial spheres; 
With such a gift the poorest state on earth 

Can empires rule through widest stretch of years. 
The supremacies of thought and love and tears 

In ever rising dynasties sublime, 
Must ever rule this world of hopes and fears ; 

Theirs is the sovereign mastery o'er time 
Although like all that rule they suffer to their prime. 

But this new god doth seek to swift devour 

These most immortal births: the divine births 
Of conscience with the high endower 

Of ancient priests and prophets, the new born mirths 
Of the great nurse of life's poetic arts and worths 

Of heaven, the infants that entangle 
With new hope the travailing heart of the earth's 

Long sorrow she ever seeks to strangle, 
Or binds them in her chains as slaves that round her dangle. 

All domestic virtue, all supernal 

Intuition, all moral aspiration, 
The infinite ideal, and the eternal 

Personality that we station 
Before, above, behind and through creation, 

Are loud blasphemed when ever they may greet 
This spirit new enthroned within the nation; 

The living God and God in man is meet 
But to be trampled down neath her foundation feet. 



240 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

But yet her strong expansive spirit teems 

In man, and though they created her she 
More createth them. Her unarterial streams, 

Dark laden with death's unvitality 
Flows to each heart to wake and feed the me 

Of life's diseased consuming selfishness. 
Her spirit breeds within the nation the 

Most unmoral types, although she dress 
The foul deformities in splendors of excess. 

She touches man and all their mighty forces 

With hunger feed upon her golden themes. 
Her magic hand opes nature's hid resources 

And shows them vast beyond all fondest dreams, 
With world surprise, invention clad in beams 

Of splendor like the sun, brings forth to birth 
A progeny enrobed in her own gleams; 

The births she brings out of this common earth, 
Are golden to the heart as golden to the girth. 

Man's works beneath the dreams of her inspire 

Are of a most gigantic character. 
Chaotic earth is grasped with fierce desire 

And her blind impediments administer 
All cosmic power and skill, and rich confer 

The fabled gift of touching all to gold. 
Gold is their god, their very life, their spur 

Of action, their sunlike visions bold, 
Their heaven supreme above and all that it doth hold. 

The heightless height and boundless reach of powers 

Designed to climb the courses of the night 
And throne themselves beyond the sun's endowers 

Now find the end and the supremest height 
Of their impassioned fulness in the right 

Of transitory ownership o'er wealth; 
Such ownership secured in heaven's sight 

By vast injustice, falsehood, acts of stealth, 
Assassin midnight blows and murders upon health. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 241 

And the inhumanity of selfishness 

Is sore intensified, and in the strife 
This new enthroned inspires, Oh what distress 

And awful sacrifice of human life ! 
Souls, living souls, husband and child and wife 

Are slaughtered here; right here before the fane 
Our strength is armed as with a butcher's knife. 

And Oh for what? for this mad thirst of gain, 
The brotherhood for this and their own souls are slain. 

The weak and poor are daily trampled here; 

The sons of God must form her sacrifice; 
They daily die upon her bloody bier 

Just at her feet with ghastly unclosed eyes, 
And who will weep and follow them with sighs? 

Even the victims seem to have no tears 
Or sense divine that far above it rise 

Unto the God or powers that rule the spheres, 
But like the brutes, plain common brutes they die along the 
years. 

And their extreme oppressors, Oh behold! 

Position, wealth, intelligence and power 
And almost all the human heart can hold; 

All, all they have, supremacy, endower, 
Opportunity and enterprising hour 

Is all for self, and for some selfish end 
The human race they heartless do devour. 

Behold the ideal the heavens unbefriend ! 
Which is the best and worst what it doth make or rend ? 

She also feeds the deadliest desire 

That ever enters, fills and rules the soul 
Of man, the wish for pleasures ; for pleasures mire 

In every earthly foolishness the goal 
Which the Eternal One has set to pole 

The finite and unto heaven lead. 
This one desire has in its heart the whole 

Of hell, and all that hell can ever breed 
Is in this single sin and soon will be unfreed. 



242 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

This deep desire all wealth doth certain find 

And nourishes to strength. The multitude 
Enchanted seems, and stricken deaf and blind 

See but the gold and phantom pleasures strewed 
Along the way. This passion unsubdued 

Appalls the wisest minds as they behold 
This business craft with being dark imbrued 

Seek to create and in youth to unfold 
Life's first and strong rebound to pleasures new and bold. 

Though earth's last need are pleasure's light buffoons 

They are the first and growing want, and thence 
The people flock to see and feel the last baboon's 

Convulsive laughter. The patronage is dense 
Round lustful shows and dangers so intense 

They thrill the nerves and hold the senses mute. 
Though this desire slays every godlike sense 

And sinks man down, down, down below the brute, 
This god feeds this desire and nurses forth the fruit. 

Life's best pleasure and swift destroying blight 

Is sexual sensuality; and this 
The chosen god in fierce unbridled might 

Feeds into man, till cinerating blasphemies 
Arise against the azure purities 

Of life and love and slave to fleshly mirth 
These high and solemn immortalities. 

Ten thousand souls: Is there a single birth 
Not born from sensuous lust by motives above earth? 

This cancer is upon the nation's heart 

The one disease from which most others swell. 
Its vile contageous sight and sounds impart 

Unto the air the potency of hell. 
The blasting curse with swift destructions fell 

Before us strike the very hopes of life 
With loss and grief that will for ages well. 

It strikes the home, husband and child and wife, 
And marriage often seems with its fruitions rife. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 243 

This god of gold has ever pampered lust 

And shameless is the chiefest pimp of shame 
What steaming beds of sensuality must 

Wealth and fashion dark curtain with her name? 
Right in her court, before her brows of fame 

What infinite degradation ! What dragons 
Of naked and enf renzied passion ! What flame 

Of hell inspires night's prostitution pens 
And makes a city's heart at night but dragon fested dens! 

Every vice grows up beneath her worship, 

And twine themselves around this ruling three. 
Is not earth hell when e'er the veil we strip 

From pleasure, greed and sensuality? 
This masquerading and infernal trinity 

Are the chief high priests of life, and minister 
To the nation, as all may plainly see, 

What is their meat and drink; yet more from her 
They draw the deadly life that does their being stir. 

Thou usurping and embodied inspiration 

From the monarchy of long rebellious ills, 
Thou art but another incarnation 

Of the lost archangel's kingdom ! How fills 
The earth with such presentations as stills 

The wisest minds with fear ! What dark portents 
And evolutions of the self in wills 

Of demoniac domination ! What intense 
And internecine strifes thou nursest now and hence ! 

Even now thou dost divide the nation 

A mighty cleaverage drives far apart 
Thy worshippers. Dreams of drunken agitation 

Spring from the starved and satiated heart, 
And fly with bloody wings into thy mart 

Of selfishness. Thou mother of the curse ! 
Thou nurse of tyrants and rebellion ! thou art 

The spirit self that poles the universe; 
Extreme to life and love and all that they impurse. 



244 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

Oh God ! Thou God of this vast universe ! 

Thou living God, the azure summit's crown ! 
Thou God of power and that tremendous curse 

Which holiness so often raineth down, 
In lightning indignation with the frown 

That turneth noonday into night, on the dense 
And blind idolatries of earth! Oh gown 

Thyself with zeal ! Thy sword omnipotence 
Oh gird upon thy thigh, and this nation's god of sense 

Oh strike ! Strike the blaspheming emanation 

From the unlocked pit ! This self-centering curse 
Upon Thy highest image of creation, 

Strike with the power of all the universe 
Of life ! With one beheading stroke that doth impurse 

All promised judgments, Oh decapitate 
This heaven defying idolatry and nurse 

It to the dust ! Oh ! right here before the state, 
Right in the midst of all their acclamations great 

With one electric, lightning, melting shock 

Divide, dismember and dissolve this mass 
As if it were some giant mountain oak 

Consumed from earth ; or pulverized as glass 
Oh drive it down into the night's crevasse 

Before the lightnings of Thy burning eyes ! 
Before the eternal generations pass, 

Right now as it defies the azure skies, 
Right here and now, Oh God in judgment power arise 

And strike! Oh strike with thine omnipotence 

This earth-born god that dares thee to thy face! 
This thing made out of blind material dense 

And making brutes of the immortal race, 
Strike ! Oh strike the fascinating grace ! 

And it destroy before our mortal eyes, 
Its image from the mirrors we embrace, 

Its reverence from the heart that underlies, 
And memory from the young as it is from the skies. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 245 

Oh God ! Thou living God of life and light, 

Of infinite unspotted holiness, 
Of the inflexibility of right 

And all the tenderness that can possess 
The mother of humanity ! Oh press 

Clean through time sensuousness and rise 
In sublimest majesty upon the height 

Of azure purity; that earthly eyes 
May blind be struck and quake before thy energize. 

Oh God arise ! that humanity may see 

That in this vast universe Thou art 
As if alone Thou wert; as if only Thee. 

And that holiness that lightning-like doth dart 
Against all sin out of Thy glowing heart. 

Oh dwindle to the very dust from whence 
They sprung the vast establishment of mart ! 

By Thy exaltation and reverence 
To the moral powers of man's divine existence* 

Be Thou enthroned on conscience cleansed divine 

And at an infinite exalted height 
Beyond the splendors the archangels shine, 

But near and real though lost amid the light. 
Man's spirit is a spacious boundless might, 

Fashioned upon Thine own infinity, 
And only Thou canst it redeem, bedight, 

And fill it with life's passions pure and free, 
And lift it on its course to fellowship with Thee. 

Oh be enthroned ! Forever throned supreme 

O'er conscience and the moral being strong ! 
Heart, mind and will, hope, joy and faith and dream, 

The man himself and being's mighty throng 
Before Thee bow in silence or in song. 

Descending from heaven's wide portality 
Oh Thou, the earth's salvation from all wrong, 

Now lend to him Thy infinite reality 
And lift and crown his course with starry immortality. 



246 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



TO THE MUSICIAN. 



Oh play ! Oh play ! Oh play ! 
That sound, Oh that sound and its soul repeat ! 

For my spirits gray 
Leapeth up from sleep to the music sweet. 
'Tis an angel sent from the azure skies 
With a magic gift that doth vitalize 
The dead and divine that within me lies. 



Oh play! Oh play! Oh play! 
That measure and passion and power divine 

Has a mighty sway 
From the unseen worlds where immortals shine. 
It falls on my heart that is frozen dead 
By the sin and sorrow our life has fed 
Until I arise and the trance is fled. 



Repeat ! Repeat ! Repeat ! 
For out of the cold, the darkness and death, 

At thy murmurs sweet 
I arise to life with immortal breath. 
Is it life or death or a world of dream 
Flows into my heart like a mountain stream 
Of beauty and blessing and boundless teem ? 



Repeat ! Repeat ! Repeat ! 
For the springtide sun, it is soft and bright 

And around my feet 
Are the bursting flowers in their rainbow light. 
Now the grass is green and the skies are blue, 
Now the winds are sweet and the streams like dew, 
Now the heavens and earth are created new. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 247 

Again ! Again ! Again ! 
For upon the scales as on golden wings, 

Far beyond our ken 
I mount to the plane where the prophet sings, 
How divine are the powers that can disenrobe 
And make for the eyes an immortal globe 
With a spirit and form no sense can probe. 

Again ! Again ! Again ! 
For thy nature breeds in the bounding heart 

What the poet's pen 
Can only in symbol or word impart. 
There are women as fair as the morning light, 
And men as pure as the mountain's height, 
And children at sport in my joyful sight. 

Oh play ! Oh play ! Oh play ! 
That power and passion and vision divine 

Give a lasting sway 
And build them up to the prophet's line. 
Still higher and high let the spirit rise 
Till the heart and mind and beholding eyes 
Are wed to the loves in the azure skies. 

Oh play ! Oh play ! Oh play ! 
For music and love they are both akin 

And upon their way 
O'er the world, the deeds and disease of sin. 
Play on to the victory of righteousness ! 
Play on to the worlds unto which we press ! 
Play on to the dreams that our visions bless ! 



248 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



SONG OF THE ART CRITIC. 



Another course has just begun, 

Another soul doth rise 
To orbit round a golden sun 

Before our mortal eyes. 
Oh is it genius' sacred sign 

For yon celestial chart? 
A culture, taste and sense divine, 

A hope and heir of art? 

All things that come most yield to test, 

For mingle false and true ; 
And oft the worst is honored best 

Because it's only new. 
Dare judgment now desert her throne 

Or from her right depart ? 
For human good she must make known 

The true and false in art. 

Here is a piece of workmanship; 

I like it, I confess ; 
Both spirit when the robes I strip 

And priestly kingly dress. 
Its small defects are very few; 

I praise the better part. 
But "like" or "praise" unto the new 

Is oft where is no art. 

It is with heavy burden frought, 

As truth itself might sing; 
Or sent by her and to us taught 

By some old poet king. 
It is a life; a spirit mould; 

A space for mind and heart; 
An orbit where we hence are rolled ; 

But is "Truth" always art? 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 249 

The thought is noble, pure and strong; 

It lifts our moral state; 
Engirdeth right, unarmors wrong; 

And thrones us with the great. 
Our best ideals : behold them there ! 

This impulse will impart. 
Oh may all reach their station fair ! 

But is "Good" always art. 

There's passion here and living fire, 

It wakes the senses dead; 
Its ardor and intense desire 

Brings back our spirits fled. 
Contageous, elemental, white, 

Its lightnings through us dart, 
To tear the slumbers from our night; 

But yet it is not art. 

There's beauty here for happy youth; 

Ripe beauty for old age; 
Sublimities for granite truth; 

Solemnities for sage. 
Since beauty never can decline 

Though all asunder start, 
This work must shine, still brighter shine; 

But Oh ! * It is not art ! 



This music new and sweet and strong 

Doth captivate our ear, 
As if a seraph passed along 

And echoed full her sphere. 
Each note is full, round and intense 

As stars upon the chart. 
'Tis life on life's discordant sense; 

But Oh ! It is not art ! 

"Tncreasingly hysterical. 



250 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



'Tis most original and new, 

And fresh as ever spring; 
Like rain to flowers or night to dew, 

Or balm to sorrow's sting; 
It strikes my being through and through, 

It gives another heart. 
Each time I read it grows more new; 

But Oh ! Oh ! It is not art ! 



There's nought above the golden noon, 

There's nought beneath the night, 
There's nought between the sun and moon 

So kindles my delight. 
All that I have, can do or dream, 

For this I'd gladly bart; 
I hold it at a price supreme; 

But Oh! Oh! Oh! It is not art! 



Art is the thing, the most divine 

In heaven above or earth; 
Of all that breathe or sing or shine, 

Has had, or will have birth. 
She lives in self without an aim ; 

Has all within her heart; 
The perfect which we cannot name; 

This, this alone is art. 



A POET'S LAMENT. 

Oh my celestial births of joy ! 

My sorrow, loss and pain ! 
The music, passion and employ 

Out of my heart and brain ! 
Oh azure daughters, sons of fire ! 
Weep round your broken hearted sire ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 251 



Oh my divine begotten race ! 

My royal blooded births ! 
My progeny of lightning grace 

And spirit winged mirths! 
Ideals, hopes and truths sublime 
From you celestial realms of rhyme! 

Old Homer's blood and Virgil's grace, 

Dante's intensity, 
The breath of Milton's singing race 

Is breathing now in ye ! 
Is glowing in each pulsing vein 
Though in another style and strain. 

But though ye are high heaven's sons 

And virgins most divine, 
On such descent forever runs 

The serpent's dark design. 
'Tis whispered now that though ye fly 
Ye to the earth must come and die. 

Oh never think to mount the sky! 

Oh never dream of thrones ! 
Oh weep ! Oh weep ! and let each eye 

Be drowned in its moans ! 
The hopes of your immortal fires 
Must be as light-flies in the mires. 

The ladies of the avenue, 
Gents of the street and hall, 

The papers and the critic's crew 
Against you loudly call; 

Because to them I fall not down 

On you my own they deadly frown. 



252 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



The old and milkless withered cows, 

Young romping heifers wild, 
And brainless calves and all that browse 

Where clover has beguiled, 
Have jumped the breach and fearing me, 
They vent their angry spleen on ye. 

Oh what a loud hysteric bawl 

They sound to ye on high ! 
Do ye not tremble lest ye fall 

Upon their lance-like eye ! 
Do ye not tremble on the height 
And fear before such loud affright! 

But more than these the fat-blind steers, 

The fat-blind steers unfew, 
That bull-like in the herd appears 

That follows them so true; 
The fat-blind steers bowing their horns 
Would pitch ye high with bellowing scorns. 

Behold those mad and switching tails ! 

Oh! if you they should strike, 
Their anger hot that never fails 

As slaughtered flies you like. 
How glad to battle I would go 
But bulls like these want ye for foe. 

Though now upon the azure height, 

I weep, I weep for ye ! 
My first and last and best delight. 

Born of eternity ! 
Oh must ye lie down in the dust 
As falsehood, hunger, greed and lust ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 253 



Why were ye born for such a fate ! 

My tears forever flow ! 
Oh progeny from life's estate 

In exile must ye go! 
From palaces of ancient kings 
Now wander forth as beggared things! 

But go ye forth. The mortal years 
Oh breast with strength divine ! 

Let cows and heifers, calves and steers 
Loud bellow, paw and pine! 

Upon the azure height shall ye 

Live ever loving, wise and free. 



A NATIONAL SONG. 
Tune: Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. 



Oh Union, the first of the nations ! 

Oh States joined with freedom as king! 
As mountains are strong in their stations 

Around Thee we stand and will sing. 
Thy states be forever united ! 

No star from its splendor e'er pale ! 
Each sister unblighting, unblighted! 
Hail ! Hail Mighty Union Oh Hail ! 
Hail ! Hail ! Mighty Union Oh Hail ! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 

Hail! Hail through all time and all tide! 



254 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

The pilgrims, their sons and their daughters, 

With liberty, faith, God and hope, 
Bold steered through the untraveled waters 

To build on this rock frowning slope. 
They conquered with nature's wild passion; 

An empire with virtue did sow; 
To their spirit and high kingly fashion 
Grow ! Grow Mighty Union Oh Grow ! 
Grow ! Grow ! Mighty Union Oh Grow ! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever ! 

Grow ! Grow through all time and all tide ! 

When the mother became the oppressor 
And gave us the sword not the shield, 
A Washington rose the redresser, 

His name on thy forehead is sealed. 
When slavery again shook the nation, 
And trembled each pillar and arch, 
A Lincoln restored thee to station, 

March ! March Mighty Union Oh March ! 
March ! March ! Mighty Union Oh March ! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 

March ! March through all time and all tide ! 

Thy brow be encircled with glory ! 

Thy heart filled with faith, love and truth ! 
Thy fame be embalmed in our story 

By manhood, by age and by youth ! 
A Wisdom ! A Power ! A Defender ! 

A Wealth giving nations thy gain ! 
A Virtue ! An Honor ! A Splendor ! 
Reign ! Reign Mighty Union Oh Reign ! 
Reign ! Reign ! Mighty Union Oh Reign ! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 

Reign ! Reign through all time and all tide ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 255 



THE FIFTH STRING. 

When first the violin was strung 

To echo forth the heart, 
The cords were on her bosom flung 

With most imperfect art; 
For sometimes there were three or five 

And sometimes they were seven; 
And thus the infant art did strive 

To reach unto her heaven. 

At length she hit the happy four: 

G, D and A and E. 
From that glad hour her spirit more 

Unfoldeth strong and free. 
Since then the violin has sway 

In concert or alone; 
She leads, the instruments obey; 

She grows as she has grown. 

But some have dreamed another string, 

A fifth string that is blessed; 
Placed just between the four that sing 

Or deep within her breast. 
It has been called by magic names 

Of more than magic dowers. 
Who it possess will reach the aims 

Of his immortal hours. 

Some call it passion's purest glow 

Filling the mortal heart; 
When tensioned feelings overflow 

There must be noble art. 
And others name it constant toil 

With labor day and night, 
For work can conquer what doth foil 

Musician's best delight. 



256 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 

Still others christen it inspire 

From yonder silver sphere, 
Whose echoes from that lyric choir 

Make our best music here. 
But deeper souls will sorrow name, 

For sorrow sanctified 
Is mother of the sweetest strain 

In earthly time and tide. 

Yet others call it happiness; 

And some would name it truth, 
And others call it age no less 

Than those who call it youth. 
But we will call it by the name 

First borrowed from above, 
And lifting all to whence it came: 

'Tis love ! Divinest love ! 

A love celestial and divine, 

Of heaven and of earth, 
To all that breathe or sing or shine, 

To all of grief and mirth; 
A love to all that is create, 

To person, beast and thing, 
Doth with her passions palpitate 

This magic mentioned string. 

The place of this prophetic string 

Is not within her breast; 
And not between the four that sing, 

But where the few have guessed. 
'Tis deep within the player's heart 

Where God and creature meet; 
So all the riches he doth start 

Must through her being beat. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 257 

All that the violin can shake, 

All that can move the soul, 
First from the infinite must break 

And merely through us roll. 
And if this fifth doth cross the heart 

And life's first entrance string, 
Oh will there not be more than art ! 

And more than passion's ring ! 

Oh noble G ! Oh noble G ! 

Oh sorrow's sonorous sound ! 
When this string gives her life to thee, 

The griefs that here abound 
Can never poison nor destroy, 

Or ever fully drowned 
The peace and strength and fountain joy 

That sorrow's soul has found. 

Oh manly D ! Oh manly D ! 

Thou art the string of life: 
And needest love to dwell in thee 

To sanctify the strife. 
The granite strength and iron strain, 

Life's hunger, need and dross 
Needs most the fifth string to refrain 

A hope upon its loss. 

Oh sweet and soft and velvet A ! 

A woman's heart is thine; 
A woman's love doth in thee sway 

And joy and blessings sign. 
Oh mother, maiden, wife and child ! 

Oh home and loves divine ! 
Ye lift from earth the deep defiled 

Because the fifth is thine. 



258 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Intense, intense impassioned E! 

Oh soul of living fire ! 
There is a more intensity, 

There is a more inspire; 
The hope and strength, the joy and reach 

Of spheres beyond all art, 
The fifth string into thine will teach 

And all will free impart. 

Come ! Screw up ! Screw up the fifth string ! 

Oh keep it well in tune ! 
Oh live forever! Grow and sing 

Within the vast commune ! 
To die is self to isolate ! 

To live is to commune ! 
The infinite with all will mate, 

Oh keep with him in tune ! 



THE AMERICAN EAGLE. 



Oh pinioned prince of heaven's wide expanse! 
Oh citizen of kingdoms in the sky ! 
Oh dweller mid the solar lightning glance ! 
Oh spirit winged to soar and never die ! 
Oh mighty and symbolic soul ! Oh high 
And emblematic nature ! Oh type divine 
Of life's impassioned heart when it doth sigh 
For liberty! Oh prophetic sign 
Of those regenerated states that lie 
Within the future, and yet upon us shine 
The form and spirit life for which the nations pine ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 259 



Out of all things is heaven and earth and sea 
That come to men appealing in their might, 
This Union when she rose among the free 
Enfranchised nations of the world caught sight 
Of thy majestic power and chose thy bright 
Emancipation to image her desires. 
The promised hope of man's ancestral right, 
The strength and heat of liberty's own fires, 
The generations rising for the fight, 
And continents of freedom in the sires 
All fixed themselves on thee to bear their high aspires. 



And thou hast borne the heart and hope and life, 
And more than these the rich maternal dream 
That brings to birth and nourishes through strife 
With noblest works as patriot prophets deem. 
And thou dost bear beyond what all may seem 
To the selfish blind and staggering nations. 
Yea, virtues more within thy bosom teem 
To lift beyond time's proud imperial stations 
Than most of thine own worshippers can theme. 
In thee is life and ideal state creations 
Whose scattered fragments lie mid time's mad desecra- 
tions. 



Then, who would not pause and feed his restless eye 
Upon thy form of majesty and power? 
Thou hast dominion o'er the azure sky 
And all beneath her rich concaving bower. 
Thy flight is like a path across the hour 
Of noonday, and thy descending spirits claim 
Ascensive souls. Not the sun upon his tower, 
Nor the inter-swinging worlds, nor any fame 
Of earthly seas or mountains can cast a lower 
On thee, for elemental beings flame 
Within thy mighty heart and overflow thy frame. 



'260 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Which frame is in the vast proportions 
Of those mighty things that base the universe; 
Thee and thy members seem distortions 
To the standards that measure time's disburse. 
Thou art like expansive clouds the mountains verse 
Upon their summits, or some exaltation 
From the deeps of plumbless ocean. The nurse 
That brought thee forth to wing the wide creation 
Spaces made thee a form in which to purse 
The genius of a most resourceful nation, 
A most imperial form for most empyreal station. 



And beauty too as great things always are 
She cast within thy full and flowing heart, 
Which whence doth burst the dull material bar 
And splendors like the morning doth impart. 
Every line swings out to strength, and scorning art 
Doth rise into the solemn and sublime 
Of beauty. All rainbow colors dart 
From thee their happy transformations, but the prime 
Armorial robe thou never long canst bart 
Is the golden, golden radiance of thy clime 
Which robes thy matchless form as it doth the king of 
time. 



Thy head is like the summit of a tower; 
It rests upon thy cone-like neck as pride 
Doth poise herself in an immortal hour. 
Thy unconquerable beak doth deride 
The service of the shield and hast denied 
The all protecting helmet. Thy tail 
So like a fan projecting roof doth guide 
Or aid thy course wherever thou doth sail. 
Just underneath thy mighty talons hide 
Their steel-like prongs which tyrants do bewail, 
But thou dost never use until thy patience fail. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 261 < 



What lightning bolts are fixed within thy eyes 
And seem behind an incandescent fire 
That all before that deep and distant lies 
Can see and search without the least desire? 
What voluminous electric coils doth wire 
Thy sinuous neck and what potentials rest 
Within the batteries that never tire 
Projecting from thy broad and bulwarked breast? 
Thy massive and torpedic frame doth sire 
The flying dreams the aeronaut has blessed, 
And all around with more than iron-clad armor dressed. 



But Oh thy wings, thy mighty matchless wings 
That with resistless power strike mortal sight ! 
When they are folded down on thee each flings 
A sense of steel resistance and doth bedight 
Thy electric muscled heart like two bright, 
Immense and most invulnerable shields. 
When extended to the width of their delight 
They seem two fans the morning spirit wields 
To chase afar the phantoms of the night; 
Two mighty wings across the azure fields 
To wake the purer wind to which the spirit yields. 



But Oh thy wings ! Thy mighty matchless wings ! 
The wings like which imagination's hour 
Can give no image but the spirit things 
Enthroned upon the height of their immortal dower. 
The cloudy wings that doth bedight high heaven's bower 
And shade the sun upon his noonday throne, 
The massive planet wings on which our 
Own ecliptic souls have ever flown, 
The all triumphant wings that doth devour 
The passioned heart that for them ever moan 
Are bound upon thy soul and bound on thee alone. 



262 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



But Oh thy wings ! Thy mighty matchless wings 
Of resistless omnipotential might ! 
On which Liberty with perpendicular springs 
Doth poise herself upon the heightless height. 
The wings of the world soul that with delight 
Smite earth's atmospheres with such terrific strife 
That by the stroke the tyrants of the night 
Are stricken down as by a lightning knife ! 
The wings on which the everlasting right 
With the passions that her fountain heart holds rife 
Ascends unto her throne to rule the spheres of life ! 



But Oh thy wings ! Thy mighty matchless wings 
The wings which bear ten thousand burdened years, 
And all the host of men and travailing things 
Who groaned in heart and wept their crimson tears ! 
The wings on which the patriot's visioned spheres 
Soar up the steep, resistless heights of heaven 
And finds a course where never more he fears 
This selfishness and these dark storms or levin ! 
The wings on which thy spirit when she hears 
The cry of new born souls on earth with seven 
Fold speed descends to them with sure and swift replevin ! 



But Oh thy wings ! Thy mighty matchless wings ! 
Of deep and inconceivable delight, 
On which the patriot lives, the poet sings 

• And all life's virtues ride upon the height ! 
The wings that with an all sustaining right 
Doth bear aloft the state into the skies 
Intact from time's contagion, and with a flight 
That draweth forth the world's unfathomed cries ! 
Oh everlasting wings that sail the bright 
Noontide dominions and yet doth higher rise 

Into the altitudes that still more vitalize ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 263 



What dominions of immeasureable space are thine ! 
The celestial and untraveled wide expanse: 
The unobstructed openness and the divine 
Immortal reaches beyond all mortal glance : 
A boundless length and breadth that doth entrance 
The high desires that worship thee on earth: 
A heightless and unthinkable advance 
In the recess of heaven's solemn mirth: 
A dominion far above this daily dance 
Of mortal things and all we hold of worth, 
Infinite, eternal and thine unto its girth. 

An infinite eternal vast domain 
Which the golden sun with an effulgence bright 
Doth fill and flood and ever more sustain 
With transcendental energies of light 
What blinding radiant streams pour from the height 
And steep with an immortal life each space 
And power of thy possession? Oh what a sight 
Of new and most majestic splendors grace 
The broad horizons of morning and of night? 
What rainbow dreams and golden hopes embrace 
Their spirits from the sun and through thy kingdoms 
race? 

What etherial spirit atmospheres 
Of elemental essences must feed 
The youthful heart of thy victorious years? 
Thy glorious all sustaining azures breed 
In thee and all that hold thy sacred creed 
The source and sense of immortality. 
The eternal powers and infinite that lead 
The earth upward with lavish impartiality 
Have through thy kingdom's length and breadth been 

freed. 
All things that are in most intense reality 
Thy kingdom feeds and thee near heaven's wide portality. 



264 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



And from the earth hast thou not gathered strength? 
Though like the type of European power 
Thy birth and breed was in the breadth and length 
Of this new continent. Long before our 
History, circling thy firmamental bower 
Thou didst drink the elemental energies 
Of this new world. Thou didst feed thy immortal hour 
With forests, mountains, plains and all that is 
From sea to sea. Thy visions strong that tower 
Above the strife and death of time's abyss 
Fed thy impassioned heart with far prophetic bliss. 



In thy young days the world soul's mighty jest 
Passed into thee with those titanic powers 
That sweep the earth where nature has expressed 
Herself in vastest amplitudes. The towers 
Where thunder storms and lightning bolts fill the bowers 
Of trembling heaven were thy supreme delight 
And thou didst breast the fierce tempestuous hours 
Till they returned disastered from the fight. 
The cyclones and the blizzard mouthed devours 
Of Arctic strength did congregate their might, 
Yet right into their teeth was thy unwearied flight. 



The rich potentialities of strength 
From these yet unconfederated states, 
This protectorate of ample breadth and length 
That then and now marches to what thy soul creates 
For it: How oft! How often it elates 
To passion's most immortal measure ! 
Thou sawest it before its infant dates 
And sported with its elements at leisure. 
Thou sawest growth and struggles with the weights 
Of tyranny; and Oh thy thrills of pleasure 
That this new promise held the earth's sublimest treasure ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 265 



So on the nation's bright auspicious morn 
Thou wert in glorious emancipation; 
And in thy unadopted state hadst borne 
To earth the patriot's visions of the sun 
To front the far oppressors, and thus begun 
The endless strife for man's ancestral right. 
Thou didst guide the raw colonials the one 
Enfranchised path the bravest must bedight 
With life and death. Their crimson blood did run 
Into the earth before the noonday light 
But soul rose to the sky and was with thine unite. 



Upon this young republic, as on a birth 
Divine and sheltered from aristocratic 
Pride, as on the one prophetic mirth 
Of the great earth mother, thy extatic 
Visions fed themselves even with sabbatic 
And millennial dreams. As the years nursed 
The infant and the new world's emphatic 
Spirit grew up and self consciousness burst 
Within them, thou didst scorn all ancient Attic 
Greatness; and hovering above, eyed and versed 
The democratic child and fed its spirit's thirst. 



But thy enraptured and delirious hour 
Was when the North arose and the earth's frame 
Trembled and convulsed beneath thy looks of power. 
Then thy presence like an embodied flame 
Swept the land and kindled in the sires tame 
Inheritors the fierce resistless fires 
Of liberty. The low obscurest name 
Rose up to manhood's high heroic ires, 
Consumed to death before the darkest shame 
That hell did ever cast on earth. The sires 
Rose up again from death with thy new fed desires. 



266 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



When forth they went then at their hopeful head 
Thy lightning form did into action guide, 
Or down the front thy mighty wings outspread 
For dearer than thy unforsaken bride 
Are loyal hearts to thee. Though death did ride 
Thee down at first thou art unconquerable most 
When storms and strength thy mighty struggles hide. 
Again ! Again ! Again ! Against the hell supported 

boast 
Thy lightning face burst on them, till terrified 
They fled from thee by river, plain and coast 
And left thee torn but proud of thy enfranchised host. 



And even yet o'er those triumphant fields 
Thy spirits pause and drink the deep delight 
Such place and men unto thy nature yields. 
The consecrated times and spots that light 
A nation's path through foul engendering night 
Are ever found where the unselfish fell 
To bring the freer state. Such place is bright 
Forever more and there the passions swell 
Unto the wide distentions of thy might. 
When there we look into the azure bell 
Thy form doth on us flash with most immortal spell. 



Thou with a magnanimity divine 
Canst look from where thy sons are in their graves, 
And dost embrace within thy best design 
The peoples that would build upon the slaves; 
Though their empire thou didst drive beneath the waves 
Of darkness, death and curse. Thy kind desire 
Encompassest the selfish blind, and saves 
A remnant from their self-destroying ire; 
And unto these thy spirit ever craves 
To breathe the best regenerating fire 
Of thy immortal heart, and may it all inspire ! 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 267 



Thou dost sweep the boundaries of the nation, 
Along the great lakes and forty-ninth line 
Thou sailest slow with calmest meditation. 
Down the Pacific coast thy watchful eyne 
Notes every point with purposes divine. 
Across the state and gulf of Mexico 
A heavy weight upon thy spirits pine. 
But up the strong Atlantic coast the glow 
Of life in each metropolis like wine 
Renews thy heart, and there thou dost bestow 
New portions of thyself in thy soul's overflow. 



Then straight across with motion calm and slow 
Thy matchless form doth stately take her way, 
And close to earth as if it fain would know 
The trifles mere that on her line doth lay. 
Thy searching eyes with their incessant play 
Sees every city, hamlet, field and stream, 
And every nook that hardly sees the day. 
From east to west as goes the golden gleam 
Of heaven and back again unto the Pilgrim's bay, 
Thy light oft goes, and more than we can dream 
Is gathered up to feed the hopes that in thee stream. 



Then from the north, the vital giving north, 
Where thou dost pause and turn unto the pole 
As to invite their fury to burst forth ; 
Then amply to the south but all thy soul 
Reading the earth unto its heart, and the whole 
Resourceful fund of that maternal plain 
And treasures vast of silver, iron and coal 
The mountain ranges hide in many a vein. 
From north to south and back again as roll 
The mighty waters, so thou art often fain 
To sail and full survey the nation's heart and brain. 



268 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Thy circuitous flight oft goes from state to state, 
And especially where the representatives 
Are council gathered to deliberate 
The course and deed which has the high ascensives. 
Upon some near and mighty throne that gives 
Thee sun-inspection, thy penetrating eyes 
Doth more than read the selfishness that lives 
Behind the veil and in the slim disguise 
Of freedom. The grains which thy celestial sives 
Let fall are the nation's hope, nor ever dies 
Out of their place in earth or place within the skies. 



But thy common course is in the altitudes 
Sublime of azure and the golden sun. 
Upon those heights thy spirit lives and broods 
Upon the nation; and more since it begun 
Those circling sweeps of triumph that run 
Like an ascending cone straight toward the throne 
Of noonday. What victorious trophies won 
From time and tyrants thine ! What dreams are shown 
To thy immortal visions ! What nation 
Like the nation thy high ideals own ! 
And histories divine when these have been outgrown! 



Thou hast nursed the nation to its height; 
Thou hast purged away the dark dismembering curse ; 
Thou dost supply the golden vision bright, 
The far ideals upon us free unpurse. 
If from such an infancy thou dost nurse 
The greatness and the majesty that lends 
This glory unto time and hope and verse, 
It is not strange thy spirit often rends 
The remnant of the ancient, ancient curse, 
And with the great "to be," the present blends, 
And lifts up all our hearts as thine own wide distends. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 269 



This late expansion, prosperity and peace 
Creates unrest for an earth encircling flight, 
Beyond thy states that rise in grand increase. 
Thy victorious citizen which the light 
Of thine own glorious nature doth bedight 
In giant stature, strength and character 
Now travels all the earth. The time is right 
To circumnavigate the globe and stir 
To life the slumbering nations of the night; 
To wake the dead and on the quick confer 
The blessing more divine than frankincense and myrrh. 



Then once around and far aloft on high; 
With one vast sweep of all beholding sight; 
With one vast tide of feeling that fills thy 
Faith sustaining being; with one vast might 
That girds thy frame with omnipotential right, 
Then in the splendors of the setting sun 
Thou vanishest from view. But as that soul of light 
Descends the steps of heaven the watching nation 
Beholds the west so insupportably bright 
Some age anew seems gloriously begun 
Or prophecies sublime of what may yet be won. 



As thou dost near the Asiatic shore 
And hoverest o'er the teeming populations 
Of life's benumbing customs from the hoar 
Antiquities, divinest agitations 
Scarcely stir for thy enthroned creations 
Are strange and far to their uplifted eyes. 
All that thou art on thy celestial stations 
Of spirit liberty can only raise 
A dumb and sightless stare. Even on such nations 
Some spirit sparks thou rainest from the skies 
Some unborn hero soul to wake and energize. 



270 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



Still sailing west from thy sublime survey 
Thou beholdest the bulwarked breasted tyrannies 
Of Europe's far horizon. Thou obscurest day 
For them, for their deformed indignities 
On human kind awakes the all that is within 
Within thy sunlike soul, and thy lightning dashes 
Strike judgment on the crimson principalities. 
In the darkness gigantic fear lashes 
The throne and powers down, down to the abyss. 
Within the trodden, sparkless, cindered ashes 
A dream that fell from thee with life electric flashes. 



But farther west ; Oh what a boundless shout 
Doth shake the earth ! as the nations that conceived 
And cradled liberty in many a route 
By sea and land and mount have now relieved 
The transendental energies they received 
By thy supreme and infinite delight ! 
Their spirits mount to thee as stones are heaved 
By the titanic, omnipotential might 
Of the earth's volcanic heart; or as a grieved 
Liberator beholds the vision bright, 
Attracted is or flies to thee upon the height. 



England, the mother of the modern world, 
The first defense of man's inherent right, 
The Gibraltar strength that oft has hurled 
The tyrants and the tyrannies of might 
Into the gulf, is so shaken by the sight 
Of thy congenial spirit that her foundations 
Seem to break from Europe's chain of might. 
By thy inspire and glorious exaltations 
Even her dead arise. In armor bright 
With mighty shouts that shake the elder nations 
They watched the western flight of thy world ambulations. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 271 



Never yet did the morning's opening eyes 
Behold the sun ascend the restless ocean 
With gladder heart than when thy sons arise 
To welcome thee from thy long ceaseless motion 
That resteth not but with thy heart's devotion. 
Traffic, pleasure, prosperity and pride 
Are disenchanted, and every common notion 
Doth yield its place unto the mighty tide 
That swelleth up with infinite emotion. 
What gratitude and admiration ride 
To meet thee on thy course and follow at thy side ! 



Then straight to Washington: upon the cloud- 
Like summit of that renowned Corinthian 
Pillar raised for thee thy mighty wings are bowed 
To rest again among thy closest kin. 
That congregated host which thou dost win 
Look not to thee with more divine desires 
Than thou on them and theirs; for not within 
The whole round earth are better sons and sires, 
Or freer states though all are touched with sin. 
Not yet are we to the height of thy aspires 
Yet here thy bosom feels most kindred to thy fires. 



If perchance upon a summer night 
Thou lightest on a metropolitan dome, 
What hosts of men would pause before the sight, 
And wives and children leave the unsuppered home 
To crowd the square as in the days of Rome : 
What reverence and new allegiance would be shown 
To thee, while on their spirits thou wouldst tome 
The world's best lore. If one should thee disown, 
Or by a word or look would dare uncomb 
A feather from thy breast, tiger rage full grown 
Would asunder instant tear the desecration shown. 



272 MISCELLANEO US SONGS 

Nor dost thou disdain the church. Upon her spire 
That in the nearest thing to heaven on earth, 
Thou often dost alight. The worshippers choir 
Thy praise with next to their sublimest mirth, 
Which thou acceptest well, for the church's birth 
Disowns thee not but their God-victorious might 
Has fought thy battles and given both the girth 
And center of hell's kingdom to thy right. 
Yea ! When thou seekest strength and weight and worth 
Thou seekest not in the nation's men of height 
But in his high born sons whom God makes free and 
bright. 

O'er the college thou pausest in thy flight 
And searchest here for those immortal hopes 
Which thou canst stir with passion's golden might 
To lead the state that often blindly gropes 
Or staggers and is lost upon the slopes 
Of life. The spirit of intelligence 
Is close and kin to thee; and ever opes 
The eyes and feeds the heart with such intense 
Passionate devotions, that life's envelopes 
Which ever blind the creatures of the sense 
Can never blind her sons though storms are dark and 
dense. 

Here and there beneath the morning's smile 
Stand bands of hopes around a virgin face. 
They search the sky till through a cloud's defile 
She points a speck, which found they faintly trace 
Its motions. What shouts of gladness embrace 
The vision new on life's young infant eyes? 
But thou descendest, and thy celestial grace 
Burns to the soul the soul that in thee lies. 
How oft ! How oft along their mortal race ! 
They watch the azure splendors of the skies 
Where though for moments lost thy presence on them 
flies. 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 273 



When two score seasons into music chime 
And give the soul distentions of the years; 
With knowledge of the tyrannies of time 
And gratitude's divine unbidden tears; 
With service to thy spirit in the spheres 
And love to all that makes thee what thou art; 
With faith above whatever now appears 
They stand again and on the skies they chart 
Thy presence. Under thee a state rears 
Itself and feeds from thy divinest heart 
True spirit liberty and all thou dost impart. 



Once more they stand with four-score winter snows 
Upon their heads and lift their eyes to thee, 
For in their hearts thy vital spirit glows 
And maketh age the dawn of immortality: 
Once more before they pass away to be- 
Come citizens of the cosmopolitan state 
Of strength and truth and love and purity 
That somewhere must unbosom wide its gate 
Among the stars of vast eternity, 
They solemn pause and their spirits satiate 
With thy immortal powers no night of death can weight. 



As once on Gettysburg stood the one great 
Heroic figure of a hundred years, 
And round him close his ministers of state 
And soldier chiefs rejoicing though in tears : 
Aloft they looked and through a cloud of fears 
Thy form they then beheld in glorious flight 
Straight toward the sun, or toward the blinded spheres 
That brighter shine beyond the noonday's sight. 
Though blood and death upon their eyes and ears 
The prophet's eye in vastest lines of light 
Sought then to map thy course upon the boundless height. 



274 MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 



So would the soul of the regenerated state 
Which has been born and fed and fired by thee 
Penetrate into the future and antedate 
The triumphs and the courses yet to be. 
But Oh alas ! The sad infirmity 
Of time's destructive selfishness doth blind 
And stay the visions of eternity. 
What is to be is curtained from the mind 
Of wisdom and all but those who live to see; 
Still deep desire within a course has signed 
Of presence, power and rule among our human kind. 

Drink deep ! Drink deep the radiance of the morn ! 
Baptize thy soul in the east and western sea ! 
The north and south pass into thee unshorn ! 
Within the sun thy flight still nearer be, 
And circle in the calm eternity ! 
The elemental essences that free 
Themselves upon the azure altitudes 
Oh absorb them all in thrice-fold purity ! 
Be thou forever throned where liberty broods 
Upon the times of high futurity ! 
Scatter golden hopes and dreams in multitudes 
To singf unto the earth millennial interludes ! 



Where e'er the sight of the enthroned oppressor 
In all the earth shall strike thy Mindless eyes : 
Wherever freedom rises the redressor 
To sell themselves in glorious sacrifice : 
Behold ! Behold ! and from thy azure skies 
Dart like a lightning bolt upon thy foes, 
And free the accumulated judgment that flies 
Like an avalanche of wrath and overthrows 
The purple dynasties. Oh energize 
The births divine with richest overflows 
Than they have ever dreamed or strongest mo AlfknoW 



MISCELLANEOUS SONGS 275 



Break thou the barriers that circumscribe 
Thy territorial lines, and emancipate 
Thy spirit's domination to every tribe 
Of the vast and guardianed globe, though their estate 
Be high or low. The whole terrestrial weight 
Of empire do thou sustain and be the breast 
And mighty heart that passion palpitates 
The citizen of the world. Be thou possessed 
Of the universal heart and thou it mate 
With the cosmopolitan kingdom of the blessed, 
Still leading up the world unto its final rest. 



Then far aloft within the golden sun, 
Thy spirit's circles in a course diurnal 
Around the globe forever more Oh run ! 
Rain thou upon the host the high maternal 
Inspirations to write earth's daily journal 
And nurture up the godlike mind and breast 
Of immortality. Rain ! Rain the vernal 
Recreations in and round the race of unoppressed 
And liberated man. The great supernal 
Soul of splendor with pure effulgence blest 
Upon thy world and works forever more will rest. 



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